Misadventures In Magical Medicine
by Greysouthpaw
Summary: The Accidental Magical Reversal Squad has been long hallowed as the team you call when shit goes wrong. After the Aurors, they have the most dangerous job in the Wizarding world (except dragon breeder). So what is it like as the new team member, when dark forces are gathering and your mentor is an immature, drunken git? Starts during book 5, OC's and plenty of guest appearances
1. Chapter 1

**A/N-** Hey there! A slightly funny idea that sort of just sprung up in my head for a story, I essentially was wondering with a friend how the magical health system works and using magic to heal folk. Looking at the MOM and St Mungos, we reasoned that it would have to fall to one of the departments to regulate right? Personally for me, this will be an experiment largely in using OC's and remaining as true to the universe and canon as possible. Expect to see the story cross-over around book 5 in the actual series and with plenty of interactions with characters from the HP universe. Read on and let me know what you think, always happy to receive feedback.

Cheers.

 _ **-Grey.**_

* * *

The department for Magical Accidents and Catastrophes was nothing like Paige had expected. For one thing there were a lot more spot fires burning and a lot less of a welcoming committee then she had expected. Wizards in dull smoking blue robes rushed about frantically, yelling _Aguamenti_ and trying to extinguish the dozens of fires that had apparently jumped up around the office. A tall silver haired man, suddenly bounded up to her from around the corner of one office.

"Ah you must be the new girl, Paige?" He beamed happily, a large smile adorned his face and seemed too wide for it. His face was covered in soot, but seemed to glow all the same. If alpacas could be people, this is how they would look; tall and lean with curly hair and an almost dopey looking grin.

"Uh huh. Yes. I mean Yes Sir. That is me!" Paige stuttered in nervousness and she uncertainly offered her hand to the gentleman.

He laughed and accepted it gladly.

"None of this Sir business. I may be head of Accidental Magic Reversal, but please just call me Unwin or Un for short. Unwin Nigel Doit. And I'm very pleased to meet you."

"Paige Calamisi," The new girl introduced herself, her enthusiasm trumping her nerves as the older man continued to pump her hand with vigour.

Enthusiasm appeared to be his thing.

Quite startlingly, flames sprung up on the sleeves of his robes and she immediately let go. With mild interest the head of squad, beat the flames off his flowing sleeves the old fashioned way. He looked up to find Paige looking around in concern as several other wizards continued to battle the remaining spot fires.

"Ah you see we've been having trouble with some mischievous wizard and his self-sparking fire spell. The squad has had difficulty battling it and so we've been trialling different ways to stop it in the office." Unwin explained

Paige didn't reply to this and only watched in horror as one nearby pudgy witch's robes were completely engulfed with flames and she dropped to the floor to roll around frantically, screaming in terror.

"With mixed results as you can see." Unwin elaborated somewhat unnecessarily.

As he spoke a young man ran up and vigorously sprayed the ailing witch down with what appeared to be a muggle fire extinguisher. Unlike the lightly scorched witch, he wasn't wearing the traditional ministry robes and instead was sporting faded blue jeans and a black t-shirt emblazoned with the word 'Disturbed'. He was noticeably less phased then the others or as scorched as them either.

"Alright there, Peregrin?" The Squad leader enquired of the young witch who was being helped to her feet by the bloke who had put her out.

"A bit singed, nothing worse thanks Un." The plump woman named Peregrin replied breathlessly, checking on the now curled and uneven ends of her untidy long blonde hair, which had fallen out of its ponytail.

"Good save, Magus." Unwin called after his firefighting member of staff, who had already wandered off. If the man heard he didn't reply.

It seemed that the last of the fires had been put out, Paige noticed glancing around at the otherwise standard looking cubicle based office.

"How about a tour then?" Mr Doit offered genially and he excitedly led her off to view the rest of the department.

"We aren't a large or particularly well-funded squad here at Accidental Magical Reversal, I'm afraid." Doit apologised as he led Paige to a pair of desks facing each other at one end of the small open air office. The woman from earlier, Peregrin was sitting at one of the desks, studiously shortening and tidying up the tips of her burnt hair with her wand. The acrid smell still lingered in the air. Her purple robes were burnt all the way through in places.

"Amanda Peregrin, meet Paige Calamisi; our new member of the Reversal team."

The round faced woman stood and reached a well-manicured hand out to Paige and gave hers a light shake.

"Nice to meet cha." She grinned genuinely, brushing soot off her robes and straightening her hair once more.

"Fresh outa, Hogwarts are we?" Amanda asked, eyeing the narrow, young, freckled face in front of her.

Paige tore her eyes from the coffee mug on Peregrin's desk which read 'don't get between a witch and her wine!'

"Just graduated." She shyly answered, wondering if it was that obvious from the way she presented herself.

Unwin picked up on her nerves and decided to continue his tour.

"And this is Mikayla Gordy, our other Tracer." He introduced Paige to the other woman sharing a desk with Peregrin.

Mikayla was quite the opposite of Amanda, skinny as a whip in comparison to her slightly tubby deskmate and with a short bob of black hair. Her demeanour seemed at odds to with dark sunken eyes and a melancholy face that took no joy from meeting the new girl. She had went large on the eyeliner, giving her the appearance of a starved panda, with the way it contrasted her extremely pale skin.

"Fresh blood for Reversals?" Mikayla nodded in greeting and taking a set of overlarge headphones off of her ears. Only now that she saw them, did Paige notice that an identical pair were crimped around Peregrin's thick neck.

"The girls here on the Tracer desk monitor any magical activity that comes up in the proximity of underage wizards. They also help to pinpoint any distress calls for us or Magical Enforcement." Unwin went on to explain, ignoring the odd gothic girl and her staring eyes.

"Let's carry on shall we?" Doit exclaimed happily and Paige gave a weak wave to the girls on the desk. Mikayla continued to simply stare with her dark eyes, but Peregrin waved back with a big smile on her face.

"See ya round, Paige!" She exclaimed.

They walked past a group of other office cubicles and Unwin waved at them as they passed. The office was divided in half with a rowdy bunch of witches and wizards across from the Magical Reversal offices, at their own desks.

"We share an office with the Obliviators, since they attend many of our calls too."

Two middle aged men sat opposite each other at desks that faced, each had a thick toothbrush moustache and the start of grey at their temples. That was where the similarities ended though, one was tall with a flat brick of a nose and the other short nugget of a man with a square face. Neither seemed to be working particularly hard and Paige noticed each fold up a copy of the Prophet as the boss approached with her. The magical newspaper was scorched around the edges and the shorter magician still actively smoked from the mornings earlier endeavours.

The Prophet headline read 'Potter the liar; Triwizard cheat!' Another Rita Skeeter special, it would seem to be about the recent disastrous end to the Triwizard cup.

"Ben and Bryce here are the other pair of Reversers, they've probably been doing this longer then you've been alive!" Unwin introduced Paige.

"Morning," They called together in bored tones, apparently not concerned by the new addition.

"Gent's, this is Paige our new Reverser, fresh out of Hogwarts and her Magimedic training."

"Gerry's replacement?" Ben the taller one asked in a deep voice.

"About time." Bryce commented, with a weak attempt at a smile in her direction.

"Hi." Paige uttered, somewhat underwhelmed by her new colleagues. She had met friendlier Redcaps.

Seemingly unaffected by the pairs obvious disinterest, Unwin guided Paige onwards with an eager hand on her arm.

"Moving on!" He called loudly like a tour guide and the remaining pair resumed their perusal of the newspaper.

* * *

Approaching another group of cubicles, Paige noticed the young man from earlier in muggle clothes, he appeared to be the only one in the office who shunned robes.

He was leaning casually against a carpeted wall and chatting animatedly with another witch who wore robes in a mysterious purple colour. On the breast was a crest of crossed wands over a question mark. She too was young and had short black hair in a pixie cut, her features were sharp and elven, with a petite frame to match. Unlike Mikayla from earlier, this slim girl didn't look unhealthy in her physique, instead there was a compact sort of strength about her frame. They were conversing on what appeared to be the border between the two departments. The pair were smiling and laughing about something, but abruptly stopped as the boss approached. The girl nodded politely to the pair and disappeared back off the Obliviator side of the office.

The young man turned to face the pair, his eyes electric blue and piercing, his face set in an unreadable expression.

"Magus, meet your new partner, Paige Calamisi." Unwin introduced the pair.

The new man Magus was decidedly unkempt, Paige decided in disapproval straight away; eyeing his unshaven, dark stubbled jaw and short messy brown hair, it seemed to spike up at the front and in a ridge along the top, while being close shaven at the back and sides. It was hard to guess his age with his hard lined face, pointed chin and sharp brows, but she would have put him in his late twenties or very early thirties. Her father would have described his face, as the face of a beater; based upon the rough story of scars and injuries it told. Magus had a rather pointed nose with a kink halfway down like it had be broken sometime in the past, over his right eyebrow a crescent shaped scar lined the top edge of the hair. One eye sat slightly lower than the other and had a small circle of darker pigment on that cheek.

Those thick dark eyebrows kinked in evaluation and out of courtesy he held out a scarred hand for her to shake. She noticed first the calluses that pressed into her palm with the firm grip he gave and then the small irregular scars that marked his strong hand. It was as though his hand had been attacked by an angry bird at some point that had really not wanted to be held. He was of average height, not towering above Paige like Ben was, nor dwarfed by her like Bryce had been. He was no slob, physically, like the other two were though and she noticed the curve to his biceps and the way his shirt was stretched by a fair set of shoulders and a strong chest.

His intelligent gaze held her own and she couldn't help but think that this calculating man was measuring everything about her, from the firmness of her handshake, to the amount of eye contact she provided as well as every nervous chew of her lip or fidget of her fingers.

"Magus McIntyre," He finally told her in a slight Irish lilt, his voice was casual, but hard to read and gave nothing away in the tone.

Hard and analysing were the two words that came to her mind to describe McIntyre.

Releasing his grip, he returned his arms to fold them across his chest and she dropped hers down in front of her to hold her own hands.

"You're giving me a newbie, Unwin?" Magus inquired of the older man sceptically.

Paige found a frown on her face at the term 'newbie'.

Unwin laughed, but there was a trace of strain in his humour.

"Please McIntyre, we couldn't leave you by yourself for long." He joked.

"I didn't see much problem with it, what would another year make it? 5?" Magus muttered sardonically.

"Regulations and all." Un explained briskly brushing aside his argument.

"Besides, a new partner might be good for you." Unwin added.

If the dubious look on McIntyre's face was anything to go by, it was clear he doubted it.

Unwin must have noticed the uncertain expression on Paige's face too because he moved to reassure her also.

"Magus here is the best Reverser and Magimedic in the business, one of the best I've ever seen!" He assured her and looked to McIntyre to see if his praise had earned him any leeway.

Paige had her own doubts based upon the appearance of her new partner, he looked more like the typical lazy muggle grad student than a highly skilled wizard.

The younger man studied Paige again in silence, taking in her skinny frame, olive skin, bookish square glasses and perfectly pressed robe. Her long straight brown hair done up in a single plait probably made her look younger then she was. He seemed to be weighing his options carefully.

"Fine..." He relented, with an exaggerated sigh.

"I'll train her at least, show her the ropes; but I'm not looking for a new partner." Magus decided, looking suspiciously at Unwin Doit.

"Excellent!" Unwin declared and he guided forward the new girl to follow her mentor as he started towards the largest office.

"And you owe me, Doit!" McIntyre called back to his boss over his shoulder as he led Paige away.

Unsure about her new career choice and mentor, Paige uncertainly followed the grizzled wizard into the nearest office.

* * *

"That's your desk, New Girl." Magus gestured and he started clearing things off of it. He was obviously used to using it as his spare desk, based on the amount of junk that required moving. The small cubicle held exactly two desks, two chairs and a filing cabinet packed into a corner. The two desks were side by side like they had formed one large desk for its usual occupant.

And all of it was precariously stacked untidily with various nick knacks, clothes, utensils, bowels and various equipment.

"My name is Paige." She reminded him, having found her voice and not entirely liking his manner for addressing her.

"Right, Paige." McIntyre grunted and he picked up a grey T-shirt off the desk, sniffed it briefly before flinging it onto his own half of the desk.

Paige tried to help him, picking up an empty coffee cup and wrinkling her nose at the congealed leftovers solidified at the bottom. With a tap of her wand and a muttered a vanishing charm, the cup was now clean and she carefully placed it to a side on the filing cabinet.

"So I guess I should give you some sort of induction speech, here goes." Magus talked while he worked.

"Happy days and welcome to the department for Magical Accidents and Catastrophes or the MAC as you might sometimes hear it referred to. Of all the departments to join, you've made the choice to be part of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad." He began with a fake cheerily sing song tone, like he was the stewardess on a plane.

"My name is Magus and I'll be your reluctant mentor and your direct supervisor or whatever I guess." He shrugged uncertainly, his cherry facade beginning to fade.

"Cards on the table; I haven't done this sort of thing in a long time, I'm pretty used to working by myself." He continued awkwardly, gesturing between the two of them with his hand when he said 'this sort of thing'.

"Today will be a bit of a trial day for us to see how we get along, I figure. We'll basically just do the job and see where the day takes us." Magus finished with a vague nonchalance.

Paige was less then enthused by his lacklustre approach, the dirty office or the reluctance of her mentor. So she decided to show off a bit and to change one of the few things she could.

Their office.

Already tired with his slow manual progression in readying her desk, Paige decided the problem could use a little more magic. With a complicated swish of her wand paper flew from the desk into the filing draws, food wrappers jumped into the bin and a large spilled ink pot sucked itself back up. A stack of muggle CDs danced and spun across the desk before finding their right cases and climbing inside, the cases then shuffled themselves into a neat stack on his desk. The old fashioned CD radio, shook off the layer of dust it wore and leapt across from her new desk and across to his.

A booze stained Christmas hat slunk out from under a nest of crumpled memos and an opened Christmas cracker, to come to a spinning finale on the top of Magus's battered reading lamp.

Lowering her wand from the final direction of cleaning, Paige smiled in satisfaction at the neat and tidy cubicle that now faced her, complete with a clear desk for her to work at. Placing her satchel bag down on her new desk, she looked up when he hadn't responded.

Magus looked impressed despite himself.

"You know your way around a charm or two." He granted her, with a slight nod.

"That's what my N.E.W.T.S. say.." Paige shot back, a smug smile tugging at her face. Using her magic always gave her a little buzz even all these years later. She had always had an affinity for charms that never failed to impress others and she found herself coming out of her shell a bit, now that she felt she had proven herself.

"Good, you'll need that. I guess to put plainly; our job is to go round unfucking things for people. Helps if you are handy with a wand, among other things." Magus explained in a bored tone, like it was a description he had grown tired of giving.

"Unfucking things?" Paige uncertainly uttered the crass new word.

Her recently appointed mentor seemed unaffected by her shyness and clarified things without bothering to lower his volume.

"Yup reversing magic, fixing magical injuries and maladies that sort of thing. Basically when shit goes wrong, we are the team that wizards call, right?"

Paige had read several descriptions of the new role she was accepted for, none of them had read like that.

Her mentor considered her once more in the silence that had fallen.

"You were a Ravenclaw, weren't you?" He muttered, the hint of a smile hiding on his own face.

"Yup!" Paige popped the 'P'.

McIntyre seemed to be re-evaluating her, as if perhaps she wasn't all she seemed.

"You must be pretty bright." He further concluded, before leaning in closer to her.

"So why the hell did you take this job?" Magus slowly demanded of her, with a disbelieving expression.

* * *

Of all the questions to be asked, Paige hadn't expected that. Her feeling of elation plunged.

"I uh... wanted to help people?" She stuttered.

"Plenty of safer ways to do that." Magus replied with a chuff of amusement, his eyes continued to examine her.

"I remember reading about you in the Prophet and from when you visited Hogwarts on career day…" Paige started, having slowly realised that she recognised the young wizard, but she stopped at his reaction.

Magus rolled his eyes and snorted.

"Eugh that whole public relations thing? What a sham! I got harangued into doing that by those bloody muppets Mulis Stake and Fudge." His tone made it clear how he felt about management.

Paige had never heard of anyone refer to their head of department or the Minister of Magic like that before, to be fair though she had only worked in the ministry for half an hour now. It wasn't quite how she thought her first half an hour would go either.

"You made the job sound so rewarding and noble." Paige confessed with a helpless passion.

Magus chuckled again, with a little more warmth this time.

"The Prophet talked it up a fair bit, the reporter was fangirling over me." His eyes twinkled as if remembering something amusing.

"You do realise the last new Reverser we had died, right?" Magus asked her, his eyes returning to the present.

"What?" Paige exclaimed all colour leaving her face, this was news to her.

"Yup, about nine months ago; some crazy old wizard in Kent was confused and crushed him to death under an enchanted refrigerator."

"No way!" Paige cried in horror.

"True story, it wasn't cool." Magus insisted, whether the pun was intentional or not she didn't know.

"I thought you said we were just reversing spells, hexs and potions that go wrong, fixing magical maladies or injuries. That sort of thing!" Paige despaired.

"We do but that it isn't always a safe job, nor is scraping up the remains of other unlucky wizards." Magus pointed out.

"The most dangerous thing in our job is often the people we encounter." He illuminated. "They've usually created something dangerous and we have to deal with it and often patch them up too."

"It's dangerous?" Paige echoed him back, still struggling to digest what he was saying.

"Hell yes, Darling! After the Aurors, we have the highest injury, mortality and insanity rate." Magus informed her, seeming surprised that she didn't know this.

"I.. I didn't realise it was that dangerous." Paige uttered, taken back at his blunt admission.

Magus chuckled again bitterly.

"Did they not cover that in orientation?" He sardonically asked.

"They largely focused on counter curses, charms and magical medicine." Paige mumbled, hoping now that there was something useful in her training.

The veteran wizard shook his head in amazement.

"You could get mauled by a sentient weed whacker, eaten by a troll, blown to smithereens by a backfired curse or driven mad by an untested jinx." Magus listed grim outcomes on his fingers, oblivious to her shock.

Finally meeting her eyes once more, his tone changed from jovial to serious.

"I would know, I've seen it, I've picked up the pieces." Magus ominously added.

Looking furtively about, he peered over top of his cubicle as if to see if anyone else was listening in.

"Things are getting more dangerous here at the ministry too. You might not have heard about it at Hogwarts, but there are some serious dark wizards gathering again." He whispered furtively.

Paige remembered back to what the boy a couple of years younger than her had yelled at the end of the last school year, after the Tri-wizard cup. Harry Potter, the boy who lived and his claim that Voldemort was back. A dead Cedric Diggory stuck in her mind, a real pity too, that boy was hot!

"Are you sure you still want to do this job?" Magus asked a moment later to her in the silence that had settled.

* * *

"Are you scaring the new girl, Magus?" A new spritely voice called from the doorway.

McIntyre jumped a full foot straight up in the air and fired a curse in the direction of the voice. Paige startled too, drawn from the grim discussion and noticing for the first time the woman who had quietly come to lean on the open doorway to their cubicle.

Whoever she was, she was obviously talented and batted away Magus's hastily fired spell. It lobbed away over the top of the offices and landed somewhere faraway with a flash and a muffled scream.

Magus smiled a cheeky grin that light his face up like nothing had since the start of their meeting. He tried valiantly to twist his features into something resembling innocence, but he couldn't quite manage it and a twinkle of mischief broke through in the corner of his lips.

Feigning offence, Magus deftly tucked his wand back into his belt and approached the pretty young woman with the cute elfish face and short black tom-boy haircut. Paige realised it was the same girl he had been talking and laughing with when they had approached him earlier.

"Me? I'd never do something so cruel!" Magus exclaimed dramatically.

"You wound me, Dawn," He added, holding a hand to his chest like he was impaled.

"Mean Magus McIntyre.." The attractive young woman, apparently named Dawn, rhymed in disapproval, like she had said it plenty of times before.

"Be nice, it's her first day." She reprimanded him, jabbing him in the chest with a pointed finger.

"Fine.." McIntyre groaned, making like it was a big effort and now a personal favour.

He threw an arm around the slight girl in a friendly fashion and turned back to face Paige.

"This is the Dangerous Dawn Dennison, the most beautiful face you will ever forget." He dramatically introduced her, much to the humiliation of the girl under his arm.

"Stop it." She hissed, slapping him in the chest playfully.

"I'm an Obliviator." Dawn explained rolling her eyes at the idiot leaning on her.

"So you must be Paige, the new girl. Welcome to the MAC." She continued, poking Magus in the rib and dancing out from under his arm to sit on the now clean desk to face the new girl. Dawn glanced around seemingly impressed by the cleaning job too.

Paige smiled, a genuine smile for the first truly friendly person she had met since her arrival that didn't seem completely insane.

"Thanks, it's not exactly what I expected.." She admitted and this was reinforced as Magus returned from what appeared to be a muggle fridge under his desk, with three bottles in his hand.

Incredulous, Paige watched as her new mentor held each bottle in turn and used his thick wand to strike the lid off of the bottle. Each lid in turn sailed off into the air over the office with the force of a bullet. From somewhere else in the office they could hear someone that sounded a lot like Bryce swear loudly, having been struck by one of the projectiles.

"Well we work pretty hard when we are called out here in MAC, so they pretty much leave us to our devices the rest of the time." Dawn shrugged, accepting a bottle from Magus.

Magus passed the next one to Paige and held aloft his own to the others for a toast.

"To Paige.. What was your last name again?"

"Calamisi."

"Did you say calamari? Like the squid dish?"

"Calamisi!" Paige said again a bit firmer.

"To Paige Calamari, may she survive her first week in the MAC!" Magus toasted, ignoring the evils he got from Paige.

"Here here." Dawn snickered at his antics and the three took a big swig of their drinks.

Paige immediately gagged and spat a mouthful of the bitter liquid on the already heavily stained office carpet.

"Easy, New Girl! I just cleaned up in here.." Magus teased with a smirk and a wink at Dawn.

In horror Paige lifted the bottle up to examine what she had assumed was butterbeer.

It was not.

The label read Casa Especial.

It was not butterbeer, but regular beer. Muggle beer. Imported none the less, but still very muggle.

Neither Magus nor Dawn seemed bothered by her reaction and continued to sip away, unconcerned that it was only 0900 in the morning.

The pair had sunk into respective seats on the two desks and had moved onto discussing Quiditch.

Dawn jabbed her bottle at McIntyre's chest to get his attention as she suddenly remembered something important.

"Oh yeah, I meant to warn you. Angus is looking for you."

Magus winced and his eyes darted as if this new man may have been hiding behind his thoroughly disused filing cabinet.

"Damnit, is he still miffed about losing five gallons to me? That dunder head shouldn't have bluffed on a pair of nines!"

Dawn gave him a patient look, as if waiting for him to find the answer himself.

"No?" He checked, doubtfully.

"I think it had more to do with suction spell you left on his toilet before you left his place on the weekend."

A guilty, yet in no way apologetic smile found Magus's face.

"I had forgotten about that.." He chuckled, indeed given the consumption of the night he had forgotten most of what he had done.

Paige looked at the pair like they were mad, she had put her beer carefully on the desk and had a mouthful of mints in her cheek to try rid the foul taste from her mouth.

Their conversation was disrupted by a loud shrill beeping from somewhere nearby.

Paige nearly leapt out of skin at the piercing noise, before realising the beeping was to the tune of the song 'Tequila!'.

Magus on the other hand seemed less concerned, almost bored, with a sigh he stood, tipped his bottle up and chugged the last of his beer. Lifting his left wrist, Paige saw the chunky watch on his wrist flashing orange and emitting the beeping song until he swatted it irritably.

Magus burped loudly and Dawn wrinkled her nose, she had gotten up too.

Paige caught her mentor's eye and he nodded.

"Alright New Girl, let's go to work." He muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N-** Finally a bit of action! Note you might have to go back and reread the first chapter for this one to make sense. I decided I wanted longer chapters so I ended up adding the second chapter into the first so now it is effectively double what it was. - **Grey.**

* * *

Paige followed Magus as he led the way back through to the office and approached the Tracers desk. For the first time she noticed the large moving posters hung above their desk, it was a public message campaign that had been out for a while.

It showed a witch collapsed on the floor and a child about ten taking her wand and holding it aloft. The speech bubble from her mouth read 'Help!' three times and the next scene showed two wizards showing up in ministry robes, one came to comfort the child and the other bent over her fallen mother.

The bold red lettering along the top of the moving poster read: "If someone is hurt, if a spell or potion goes wrong or if you are in doubt, call for help. Raise any wand in the air and call for help three times and the department of magical accidents and catastrophes will apparate to your assistance."

"What have ya got for us ladies?" Magus asked the pair.

Perergin shrugged the headset off of her head and looked at the notes she jotted down on her quill.

"Call for help from a rural property in Glouscershire, No audio, or call through the help line. Nothing on the muggle channels either." She shrugged at the lack of information and passed Magus the paper with the address.

"Is that all the information we get?" Paige croaked in alarm, her mind wandered to rampaging fridges and misfiring spells.

"That's it New Girl, we don't have an easy way to get information about a situation. Owls are way too slow, in most instances our info comes from muggle police and emergency radio band intercepts." Magus explained, leading her towards the nearby open fire grate. There was a large bin of Floo powder beside the fire in anticipation and Magus scooped up a handful and absently tossed it into the fire, she followed his lead.

"Repeat after me," He ordered, some trace of levity gone.

"The preparation room!" He called and stepped into the fire, which flashed a brilliant magenta.

Paige hated Floo travel, the soot was hell on her hair, but she did what she was told.

"The preparation room." She cried, with somewhat less conviction then her mentor.

Coughing and emerging from the fireplace, Paige cursed Floo travel; one of her least favourite forms of getting about.

She emerged into a poorly lit basement, cages of equipment lined the walls, magically modified hazmat suits, harnesses and helmets. Shelves of various sized potions lined the walls, bins of dragonhide gloves and that was as far as she got looking through the room. Magus appeared from nowhere, wearing a worn dragonhide vest, with several different sized pockets all over it. Over his shoulder was a basic looking single strap tan satchel He threw a second satchel at Paige and somehow she caught it. In horror she noticed a large dark brown stain on one whole side of the strap; was that blood?! She quickly shrugged the satchel on without being told and followed her mentor towards a small circle a few metres in diameter in one of the corners. On the opposite side of the room, a pair of double doors led somewhere else that she couldn't fathom.

"Everything you need should be in there." He assured her as her eyes once more raked the shelves of gear.

"How's your apparition?" Magus asked her, looking at the slip of paper once more.

"Not bad, I haven't done a lot of it though." She confessed. Her mentor nodded sagely.

"You will." He promised her, "But if you aren't confident yet, maybe grab onto my arm." He advised holding out a hand to her.

Gratefully accepting, her breath coming quick from the suddenness of the transition to working, she squeezed tight to his muscular forearm and the darkness stole them.

* * *

With a crack they appeared outside a battered cottage surrounded by fog and mist. Magus waved a hand in front of his face to clear his view, strangely enough the fog seemed to be coming from the cottage.

Ducking and placing a hand over his mouth and nose, Magus pulled her down too and drew his wand.

"Bubblehead charm!" He hissed and together they conjured a bubble to sit over their respective heads.

Paige watched as her partner tossed his wand from one hand to the other as he slid on a pair of dragon hide gloves from one of the side pockets of his vest. She checked her man bag and found a neatly folded pair in the enlarged space and she pulled them on too. The gloves she noticed were odd and missing the tips of the first two fingers. They were an ominous article to don as it implied there was some serious risk to follow. He nodded at her initiative and advanced towards the door carefully. She followed trying to suppress the urge to ask a question about how or why they were doing things.

Magus pushed the door open with his toe and he threw a ball of light into the misty room. When there was no response to that he prodded his wand forward and whispered _'Vacumous'_ Like a giant hoover, his wand now started sucking up the mist and as he did so their vison began to clear.

The first thing Paige noticed was the cauldron set over the smouldering fire.

"Kill the fire." Magus yelled through his bubblehead, his voice sounding echoy like he had been speaking into a bucket.

"Right." Paige agreed, pointing her wand and dousing it with a wordless _Aguamenti._

As the fog began to clear, they were able to see more of the inside of the small cottage. That was when the figure on the bed became visible.

"Over here." Magus alerted her and the pair approached the prone figure.

It was an older wizard with white hair poking out of his ears and a balding head. He was pale as a sheet and barely breathing, Paige realised and her own breath hitched.

"Hmm some fresh air wouldn't go amiss." Magus decided coolly and with a swing of his wand all the windows opened to help his effort at clearing the fog.

"Now what should we do for him?" He directed the question this time at Paige.

"Uh um, we could try a Bezoa?" She came up with, feeling completely out of her league.

"Bezoas don't work so well for a poison already ingested, especially inhaled." Magus calmly informed her and he ceased the vacuum on his wand.

"Think simple; what's going to kill this geezer first?" He gave her a hint.

" _Anapneo."_ Paige whispered, the old man's breathing became steadier and less laboured.

"Very good." Magus grinned at the charm she used to clear his airway. "What next?" He prompted.

"If he has been poisoned by the smoke or whatever, maybe he should have a bubblehead too?" Paige tried again hopefully.

"An excellent idea. Go to it." Magus encouraged her and he went over to the cauldron to inspect its contents.

"I don't know what he was making, but he probably dozed off and let it over boil." The wizard considered, examining the splashed potion on the ground. A vanishing charm had made short work of the burnt contents inside.

"Now what do we do?" Paige asked, eyeing the sick wizard in concern, his breathing did appear to have improved since her charm started protecting him.

"Well we can't rightly leave him here now, can we?" Magus grinned crookedly at her, the pressure and seriousness of the situation obviously didn't affect him in the slightest.

"Go ahead summon a stretcher, levitate him onto it and then off we fuck." He said it like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Paige had never conjured a stretcher before, but she knew the theory, closing her eyes to concentrate she focused on the magic. With a small pop the thin bed appeared.

Magus tested the flex of the canvas with one of his feet.

"A bit loose on the canvas, but not bad for a first attempt." He critiqued.

Now came the hard part.

Paige had never levitated anything so large before, but she gave it a fair go.

The body of the man seemed to rise like held aloft by invisible strings, his head sagged and his legs dragged the ground as he levitated over to his new bed. With a loud thump she abruptly dropped the man onto the bed and the pair of them winced.

"Levitation could use some work." Magus commented, with a swish of his own wand he created thin cords that snapped secure around their patient, binding him to the stretcher now.

"No time to practise like the present though, bring him outside and we'll apparate."

Paige focused hard on the bed but it swung wildly on its ends and she could see the foresight of Magus at strapping the patient in. With much bumping and spinning she managed to float her charge out of the doorway and into the bleak daylight.

"Grab a hold again and to him as well." Magus told her. If his smile was anything to go on he seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the show.

* * *

With a loud crack they were suddenly back in the preparation room.

"Shouldn't we be taking him to St Mungos?" Paige enquired looking in confusion at their destination. Her voice sounded normal once more, the apparition having apparently ceased the effects of the bubblehead charm.

"Oh, but we are at St Mungos; the basement to be precise." McIntyre informed her, pushing open the two double doors at the end of the room and leading the way up a dark ramp.

"They leave us this little underground room to store our stuff and it makes for a handy back entrance to apparate in with patients." Her mentor explained as they walked.

After several turns and another ramp the three approached another door labelled 'emergency'

Inside it was chaos: just like any other emergency department waiting room on earth, but twice as busy and with more noise. Explosions resounded from someone's backfiring wand, a crow cackled loudly and the collective sounds of people in pain and misery was overwhelming.

"Do you see any muggles in the waiting room?" Magus asked his student in a quiet whisper as they passed.

"No, of course not. Magic can't heal muggles.." She replied slowly in confusion.

"Correct, Hippocrates theory would suggest that only magical beings can be healed by magic because..?" He quizzed her, sounding as though he was actually almost enjoying the opportunity.

"Because he theorised that all a healer does is activate and direct the latent magic in a witch or wizard to heal themselves. Accordingly we can't heal muggles because the actual presence of magic is the thing that is required to allow a being to be healed." Paige slowly answered after a pause to make sure she articulated herself well. To be completely honest with herself, she was surprised that her apparently lazy mentor knew about the great healer and founder of magical medicine; Hippocrates.

"Well said, New Girl; you used lots of big words there. It would be a bit of a dick move if we could heal muggles and just didn't after all. We don't help them because we actually can't." Magus purported.

"Makes you wonder though, by that logic too; are there some unrecognised muggle born magicians out there that we potentially could heal? And what about Squibs?" He posed the question to her.

"I don't know." Paige admitted in defeat, having never really given it much thought.

"No one really does, we don't fully understand how magic and medicine interact. Some things we can heal, typically muggle or mundane maladies, but other injuries or illness from curses and such we have no magical fix for." Her mentor shrugged in concession, he seemed about to say something but changed his mind.

"If you ever meet this old Ex-Auror called Madeye Moody you will see what I mean. Hell that guy is missing bits and pieces of him all over that magical medicine had no answer for." Magus gave as a rather grim example.

"They don't teach us much about this at Hogwarts." Paige confessed quietly in contemplation.

"Well, us magical folk can be a bit arrogant about some things, we don't like admitting the stuff we don't know." McIntyre mumbled enigmatically as he cleared a path for her.

Bypassing the que and a man with a head three times the normal size, they floated their patient straight through another set of double doors. They were met by a witch in Lime green robes with the word 'Triage' stitched on the breast. She was a young healer with light red hair up in a tight bun and a pretty face that was furrowed before its time with stress.

"Good morning Leone!" Magus cheerily greeted her and received a less then warm return.

"McIntyre, what have you brought me?" Leone flatly replied, the heaving waiting room was testament to her current workload and she obviously didn't welcome him adding to it.

Magus turned to his partner and gave a stage whisper.

"How come the cute ones are always so stroppy with me?"

"Maybe because you're an immature hooligan and the barbarian of magical medicine?" Leone replied sarcastically for her, but her lips had curled up traitorously in a small smile.

Paige giggled at the somewhat accurate summation of her mentor.

"Ouch, uncalled for, Sister. I think your hair bun is too tight this morning Leone and it is squeezing your brain." Magus responded in apparent concern.

"Who's the new girl? I like her." Leone decided.

Paige introduced herself quickly and attention returned to the patient as her lapse in concentration caused him to bump into the ceiling.

"What's the story here?" Leone asked, as the patient slowly drifted down into her reach and she started examining their eyes.

"Not sure, looked like this old geezer left something magical boiling on the stove and it boiled over. Place was pretty smoky when we got there, I reckon that's what has him trying to do an imitation of a deadman." Magus casually surmised the situation, he took off his dragon hide gloves and began to wash his hands.

"I see." Leone replied unamused, her own wand took over the levitation and she started to float the patient off.

"You're welcome!" Magus called cheerily after her as she took him out back, her head shook in amusement.

"Now what do we do?" Paige wondered aloud to her mentor who was still watching after the departing healer.

"Well since we are in London we may as well drop in at the Cauldron for a cold one." Magus proposed wandering out through the waiting room and deflating the distressed bobble-headed man with a deft jab of his wand.

At the incredulous look on his new partners face at his suggestion, he changed tact.

"Or we could grab coffee while we are out? Is that what the kids are drinking now days?" Magus rescinded with an inquiring raised eyebrow.

Paige looked more amiable to that idea, but not so much at being called a kid. They left the hidden hospital and walked down the busy Monday morning streets until they found a coffee shop.

It was called Mugs and Muffins, as the bright illustrated sign suggested.

Magus reluctantly pushed open the door and held it open for his young student too. The unlikely pair stopped in front of the counter deliberating over what to get.

As a half-blood Paige knew her way well around a coffee shop and it was an easy decision for her to reach. A butterscotch latte, sweet and smooth.

Magus seemed to be having more trouble deciding as his sharp eyes scanned the order board.

"Whatever happened to just plain coffee?" He muttered to himself and sounding like a geriatric.

"What'd you get, New Girl?" Magus asked turning to the satisfied expression she had sipping away and warming her hands simultaneously.

Paige told him and he grimaced in disgust, denounced her choice and then promptly ordered the same.

"Not half bad." He admitted as they left, with an expression like Paige might have value after all. He took another sip of the sweet hot beverage, before taking a small silver flask from his vest pocket and adding a good dash to the drink.

"Stops me becoming a werewolf. Honest." Magus promised unconvincingly at the dubious look he received.

They wandered the streets of London at a slow stroll, Paige wanting to go faster and return to the office, her mentor seemingly didn't, lagging behind at a leisurely pace.

"Don't we need to get back to the Ministry?" She finally asked him in exasperation, when her dawdling partner stopped to feed some ducks at a fountain with bread that he seemed to pull once more mysteriously from his vest.

Magus shrugged and tossed a rye crust onto the back of a particularly large mallard, who was promptly mobbed by the other ducks for his delicious crumb covered feathers.

"Ain't no rush," He muttered loosing off the last of his bread to the far side of the fountain so the ducks zoomed across the water in their amusing, ungainly fashion to fetch the food.

"We get max five callouts in a day over the whole department, usually many less while the kids are all at Hogwarts. So there is no reason to hurry back, they'll get in touch if they need us." Magus mumbled nonchalantly, looking wistfully after his duck-billed friends, He tapped the watch on his wrist to reassure her that they could be reached.

He sipped again on his drink and smirked at her impatient expression.

"Do you want to get some practice in before we go back to the office?" The Irish wizard proposed, trying to sound mentoring.

Given the mischievous grin partially hidden by his takeaway cup, Paige probably should have hesitated more than she did.

"Alright…" She reluctantly agreed, wondering what his definition of practice involved.

Ominously, he smiled widely, dumped his empty coffee cup in a nearby bin and offered his arm to her once more.

She soon found out what his idea of practice was and sorely regretted it.

* * *

"What are we doing here?" Paige muttered in frustration, she was already getting sick of asking questions to her unusual mentor. She hadn't been back in Hogsmeade since she finished Hogwarts, it all still looked very much the same.

"Have to see a man about a Hippogriff." Magus brushed her off lightly and pushed open the door to the Hogs Head. Smoke and noise rolled out in thick waves, choking up Paige as she reluctantly followed in close behind him.

Paige had never set foot in the rough pub, for good reason too. Several burly wizards were raising voices and seconds away from duelling, a table overturned in front of them. There a vampire in one corner, trying to coerce a patron to give up a pint or two of a different kind. Finally she saw where they were approaching and was not overly keen or pleased.

A short, shabby wizard was cornered against a booth by two very large intimidating wizards, who were behaving distinctly unfriendly. One jabbed his finger roughly into the chest of the older harangued man while the other menacingly wielded his wand like a club.

The stricken wizard's eyes light up in relief when he spotted Magus and he called out to the Reverser.

"Magus, over here. Please!" He begged desperately and the two heavies turned their attention to the new arrival.

"Mundungus." McIntyre nodded in greeting, from behind him Paige noticed how his left hand had come to rest at his collar and concealed by the inside of his wrist was Magus's stout cedar wand.

"Gentlemen." He greeted the other two, equally cordially.

He got back a grunt and a snarl for his warmness.

The pair of thugs eyed him unimpressed and one finally responded.

"Fuck off, we're busy talking to this weasel." The larger of the two ordered him, he had a flat head, a thick bull neck and arms coiled in muscle. His large full backs physique far dwarfed Magus and indeed most people with the exception of half giants. Based on his size alone, the bloke could have been Hagrid's long lost son.

His buddy likewise looked like he had a bit of troll in him. Bald and ugly with a nose like a smashed door knob, his face set in an ugly scowl. His wand looked like a twig in his over large hands.

Paige started to walk away quickly, already uncomfortable enough just being in the sleazy bar. In ministry robes and as a female, she had drawn a variety of looks, varying from predatory, curious or downright hostile. She stopped when she realised something was wrong.

Magus was not leaving with her.

He stood his ground, analysing the three men in front of him like it was a particularly odd spell he had to reverse.

"Come now, lads. Can't we share him?" He implored the pair of knuckle draggers, reaching onto a nearby table he picked up a left over tankard of something and sniffed it. Whatever fluid was in the goblet must have been satisfactory, because he shrugged and took a lazy sip. Trying to look inconspicuous behind him, Paige winced at her apparently always drinking mentor.

"Once we get what we want from him there will be nothing left to share." Quarter-Giant grunted cruelly, his piggy eyes fastening back on Fletcher.

Mundungus made a small vole like sound at the back of his throat.

"I can't abide by that fellas; this weasel, as you so aptly described him, owes me money." Magus slowly informed them as if it pained him to tell them.

"I guess he is also almost a friend too." He added as an afterthought at the pleading expression that Mundungus was giving him.

Quarter-Giant spoke up in threat, reaching for a wand with his own meaty paw.

"You raise a wand at us and you're mince too." He growled, puffing out his chest and poking Magus with a thick finger that was enough to make him step back.

Magus looked downcast as some of the drink slopped onto his black t-shirt, the tankard still resting in one hand. He muttered something to himself seemingly in deliberation.

"How about I get my money first, then you mince him?" He proposed suddenly, as if it solved all the problems today.

"Magus!?" Paige shrieked in horror at the idea, where she hid several paces behind him looking terrified.

"Not helping!" Mundungus agreed in panic, his beady eyes flitting from one threat to the next.

Quarter-Giant seemed to be the voice of the pair and he blew out his cheeks in irritation like a bull about to charge.

"I'm sick of your talking, little muggle dressed man. No deal." He sneered.

"Both mince!" Cavetroll agreed in malicious glee.

Paige once more began backing for the door in horror, even unarmed the pair were more than a match for three of them. Being pounded into dust on her first day did not seem an ideal start to her career. The rest of the bar had picked up on the vibe too, with many patrons excusing themselves for the exit, the barman ducking to take refuge behind his bottom shelf.

Once more Paige was amazed by the nerve of her mentor or was it the stupidity, as he remained in place, drink in hand.

* * *

Magus said nothing and calmly lifted the goblet to his mouth for another sip, his cold granite eyes following the two over large wizards as they menacingly approached him. They became to raise their wands.

In an explosion of movement, Magus flicked his goblet horizontally across the pair, splattering their faces with a thick dark liquid. The two approaching wizards yelled out in agony, stopping in their charge and clutching at their eyes. Magus slid his wand up to an overhand grip and hissed a spell in their direction as they recoiled.

" _Incendio!"_

A jet of crimson fire erupted from his thick wand and glaringly ignited the accelerant he had just sprayed on his two opponents. Flames rippled across the face of each ugly man and jumped to their robes with ease. Whatever Magus had transfigured the fluid into, it was highly flammable. The two screamed in terror and agony as they were engulfed, a jet of some green spell erupted from one of their wands and barely missed Paige. Mundungus was desperately trying to push past the pair without catching on fire himself.

Magus wielded his wand back like a baton and brutally bashed the wand from each man's hand, with smooth arcs of swinging. A horrendous crack sounded with each contact he made, shattering the wand hands of both men.

Cave-troll charged forward and swung one of his own massive limbs in desperation and swatted Magus off his feet. He flew a good ten feet and ended up behind the bar. To say he ended up behind the bar was somewhat of an understatement, he had in fact been knocked through it.

Paige thought he was dead, but the messy head of hair groggily poked up over the wood furnishings, his wand arm flopped up beside it.

"That's enough, put them out." He gasped at Paige. With shaking hands, the new intern doused the flaming pair with water.

Steaming and smouldering the pair slumped to their stomachs on the ground like reddened, whales gasping in pain.

In this time Magus had shakily extricated himself from the splintered bar. Sorely he limped over to the beached pair and stood above them.

They were not severely burnt, some blistering had made an appearance across the faces though and both were now devoid of eyebrows or indeed any other hair on their heads. There would be scarring but they would probably live.

"I tried discussing this like gentle fellows, but you guys had to make with the threatening." He groaned, holding one of his sides in agony.

"Hell ova right hook you got there too, pal." Magus muttered at the one resembling a burnt cave troll who had landed a hit on him. He then viciously kicked the ailing man in the ribs.

"No more of this shaking down decent folks, you hear?" Magus ordered them, before looking up at the still trembling Mundungus.

"Or Mundungus." He added with a smirk and Dung gave an offended gasp.

"You guys are making it a terrible first day for Paige over here." Magus accused gesturing back at his terrified charge.

One of the grounded men made a mumbling that may have been an apology.

A large hand slowly drifted towards a nearby wand on the ground.

Magus didn't need the cry from Paige to alert him though and he roughly stood on the wandering hand. Slowly and painfully he ground his shoe until creaks and cracks caused the owner to whimper and cease moving it.

"Why am I even bothering to lecture you monkeys? You won't even remember our chat anyway!" He despaired.

Chambering his twelve inch hardwood cedar wand at the shoulder, McIntyre swung twice and smashed any semblance of consciousness from the prone pair. Several stray teeth skittered across the floor from the cruel blow and Paige jumped out of their path in disgust.

The young witch was only able to watch in astonishment; she had never seen a wizard wield there wand like a weapon as this one ruthlessly had, nor had she ever seen such a one sided, gruesome fight finished in such a brutal fashion. In truth it was the first actual fight she had ever been witness to, Ravenclaws tended to solve their problems with words, not wands or fists. Her heart hammered away in her chest like each beat was a blow from her mentor's thick wand.

Magus winced at the end of his swing and crumpled around his right side. Paige unfroze and rushed to his aid in alarm, Mundungus just tried to rush away. Magus managed to ankle tap the two-bit thief on his way past and drag him down to beside him too.

"Ouch!" Dung complained as he wiped out painfully into a chair.

"Shut up Dung! It could be much worse.." The other wizard bitterly silenced him, his right side was plainly killing him.

"Where are you hurt?" Paige wearily asked her mentor, still thinking that any injury was entirely his own fault.

"Ribs.. Reckon I broke a couple." He gritted out between his teeth and holding a struggling Fletcher. In trepidation Paige gently lifted his shirt up and the same side arm, to inspect his flank where it was already beginning to swell up.

"I've never repaired ribs before.." She stuttered in earnest and uncertainty.

"Or anything actually." She added as an afterthought.

"Real reassuring." Mundungus chimed in unhelpfully.

"Easy enough to do." Magus groaned and gave Dung a heavy rap with his thick wand to cease his escape efforts.

"You know the incantation, do it while tracing each rib with your wand." He explained, his grip had tightened around the recently rescued rogue who was now being crushed in his arms like a giant reluctant teddy bear.

Her hands shaking once more in nerves, Paige lifted her wand, whispered ' _Osteo Reparium'_ and began redrawing the curves of her mentor's ribs _._ The taut pale skin and muscle of his flank trembled with hurt and exertion, but Magus refused to utter a sound. Several long and excruciating moments later, she withdrew her wand, sweating and shaking almost as much as he was. It took her several moments to realise she was still resting a hand on his bare chest and she quickly darted it away. She pushed the thoughts of his muscles moving under her hands and his hitched breath. Blushing a fine Gryffindor colour, Paige jumped up to her feet once more.

Patrons were starting to return now the yelling and screaming had stopped, the bartender peering over his counter wearily. This was obviously not the first fight he had endured during his career.

"Not a bad job, New Girl." Magus groaned, accepting her hand to get up and inspecting his recently healed ribs.

Oblivious to audience, the tough wizard tucked his wand away once more and dropped his shirt back down.

Raising his voice he addressed the refilling bar.

"Nothing to be alarmed about here people." He spun an obvious lie at the burnt booth behind him and splintered bar.

Magus gestured at Paige or more specifically her robes.

"Official ministry business, please excuse us." He finished.

His voice quiet once more, he turned to Paige.

"See what you can do for the fire and water damage with a few restoration charms, would ya?" Paige nodded exhaustedly, but followed his instructions.

"I'll help!" Mundungus suggested, trying to get up, but was stopped as Magus sharply stepped on his leg pinning him to the ground.

"Not so fast, Dung. We need to have a word.." Magus trailed off and Paige was unable to hear the conversation as she repaired the fractured bar and dried the remaining water. The scorch marks proved more difficult and took a particularly strong scouring charm to remove them. In satisfaction she looked round at the dingy, filthy, but at least now whole again bar. Somehow the two large unconscious men had come to be sitting propped up together in one of the other booths. Paige had a sneaking suspicion that her mentor used his levitation charm for more than just transporting patients. It would also explain why the pair had been posed with hands on top of one other and a head lolled onto the others shoulder, like a snoring old married couple.

She returned to see Mundungus Fletcher rabbiting out the door just as fast as he could and her mentor gratefully accepting a pint from the bartender. Right before Mundungus scarpered she thought that she noticed him withdraw a small battered envelope, which he gratefully surrendered to Magus.

Under her scrutinising eye, he sucked back the whole pint like it was water and slammed the glass back on the table with a deep sigh.

"Much better, those ribs are going to ache for days." He groaned and gingerly got to his feet.

He flipped a sickle across the counter and led the way out into the bleak Hogsmeade daylight.

Magus turned to Paige with a wide crooked grin, as she trudged along with him and came up to his side.

"Well, I think that is lunch." He decided.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N-** Big thanks to Jadely31 for her review, while I'll apologise that this chapter is light on action I will more than make up for it in those to follow.

Cheers and enjoy.

 _ **Grey.**_

* * *

Magus ignored Paige the whole way back to the Preparation room and all the way up until he turned to take the satchel from her.

Shrugging off the heavy bag, her scathing gaze finally met his, as he accepted it from her.

"Some practice that was!" She accused him.

Magus turned his back on her and slung the bags into separate dusty lockers that stood against the wall in a row.

"I don't see what you are so mad about, New Girl.." He shrugged her off casually, taking a towel from a rack and wiping first his sweaty brow and then his sturdy wand.

"You got some valuable practice at reversing some magic and even a shot at repairing some ribs." Magus pointed out, drying his hands off and walking back towards the fireplace.

Paige couldn't fault his logic there, but she certainly could object to his means.

"Yeah, but they were your ribs! After a bar fight!" She continued in exasperation.

"And on that note, I might need to have another go at the ribs. I think one of them isn't straight or is too straight; ribs are supposed to sort of curve. They are funny things." Magus explained almost as though he was describing an old eccentric friend, or at least he did until his side caught again when he reached for a handful of Floo powder.

Seeing Paige's perplexed expression, he hurried to reassure her.

"Not bad for a first attempt at ribs though, you'll get the hang of it! Probably." He quickly encouraged, trying to say things a mentor should say, before disappearing into the fire.

Paige had a horrible view of the future with this immature man where she followed him from place to place fixing him up after he did stupid things. Was this some latent divination powers finally beginning to surface?

"The office of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes." She muttered in exasperation, like the department was a curse and headed after him.

On the other side he was waiting for her to emerge.

"Come on New Girl, I'll show you the cafeteria. I don't usually eat there, but most of the ministry do." He announced, a colourful lunch box already hanging from his hand.

Paige summoned her lunch from her bag and strode on her long legs to catch up with Magus as he made for the exit with his own Scooby Doo lunch box.

As they walked to the elevator, she addressed his odd, childish lunch container.

"Do you have kids?" Paige asked, gesturing to his lunch box covered in children's characters.

"Not that I'm aware of…" Magus answered carefully, looking at her sideways.

"Why? How old are you? What has your mother told you?!" He demanded in conspiratorial tones and clutching the front of her robes seriously.

"I'm seventeen and you are NOT my father." She told him firmly in a deadpan expression, brushing his hands off her robes.

"No, you are right the math checks out on that one. Thank god." He wiped his brow in mock relief, his eyes twinkling with mischief that apparently hadn't been knocked out of him from earlier.

Paige rolled her eyes at him; why did she have to get assigned a mentor with a sense of humour?

"A relief for us both, I assure you." She promised him and they stopped in front of the elevator bank, Magus jabbed the call button with his little finger.

Rapping a fist on his adorable lunch box he explained.

"Present from a friend; inside joke ya know?"

"How old are you?" She despaired, a puzzle she had been trying to figure out. Her mentor was an odd mix of contradictions, old seasoned eyes, yet full of mirth, a mature body, but a wide streak of childish humour and playfulness.

He smirked in that annoying way he did when he was trying to be enigmatic.

"I like to think I'm ageless: my true time of birth another great mystery for the ages." He dramatically revelled.

"You are 24 and your birthday was last month." An amused voice answered from behind them. Dawn pushed her way onto the elevator with them.

Magus clutched at his head in frustration.

"Noooo my mystique!" He moaned in a haunted fashion, like it had just been robbed of him.

Dawn flicked his ear with a long suffering expression.

"Ouch! I regret letting you meet my mother when she came to stay!" Magus moodily shot back at her, clutching a wounded ear.

"I saw you two heading to the Café for lunch and thought I'd take mine now too." Dawn explained, a Johnny Quest lunch box was clutched to her chest protectively. The lunchboxes matched in their imaturity and gave Paige a good indication as to who had gifted them to each friend.

"And we are so glad you decided to join us.." Magus muttered sarcastically and did a good job of pretending to be annoyed.

"What else do you want to know about this crazy, Paige?" Dawn offered with a lazy smirk at the irritated expression it created on Magus's face.

Paige liked the way the two mucked around and the way Dawn was not afraid to undermine him, briefly she wondered if they were a couple.

"Hmmm." She pondered, where would she start? So many questions, seemed to fill her mind.

"What is the deal with him not wearing robes?" Paige found her first question and one of the most obvious.

Dawn seemed exasperated by the question already as Magus pushed his head past hers to answer this one himself.

"Why would I want to wear a pair of silly pyjamas to work?" He ranted derisively.

"No offense ladies and they look smashing on you both, but not very practical are they?"

"I don't know, my dream was always to wear pyjamas all day." Dawn riposted to wind him up.

"Comfortable no doubt, and you can wear nothing underneath them and no one is any the wiser." He waggled his eyebrows at Dawn at this second point.

"But having billowy, flammable material hanging off your every limb when you are trying to run, fight or attempting not be set on fire is just idiotic." Magus finished, at the word flammable he gave Paige a pointed look as if she needed reminding of what had occurred earlier that day.

"Face it Magus; you are just more muggle than wizard." Dawn accused him with a smarmy look.

"No doubt," He freely admitted to the pair with a snort of laughter.

"Hell I've always just been a muggle with a little bit of black magic at his disposal." Magus seemed almost proud of the claim.

"The blackest." Dawn teased him.

"I will tell the story of the time you were caught going commando at work." Magus threatened her with a raised finger.

Dawn blushed and tried to look abashed.

"It was laundry day!" She muttered in feeble defence.

"That is what I thought," Magus finished with a satisfied smile.

The elevator dinged and the trio walked out and down the short corridor into a large sparsely populated lunch room.

* * *

Groups of wizards sat at long bench tables, talking, eating and generally enjoying their lunch break.

Walking down the length of the long tables, a stern looking black wizard had removed his odd hat and placed it beside him on the table.

With a quiet pop it turned into a Chihuahua, which promptly started yapping shrilly and annoying the tough looking occupants of the table.

Magus subtly lowered his wand and tried to keep a straight face as they passed.

"Watch it McIntyre, smartass." Kingsley intoned in his rich mahogany voice, the hint of a smile crept to the corner of his mouth and his table chuckled as he transfigured it back to its usual hat.

"You didn't have an Auror that was coming, Kingsley?" Magus quipped lamely, with a friendly grin.

"That crazy Medicine Man!" One of the Aurors snorted in laughter at the antics.

Dawn elbowed him hard in his previously broken ribs and sent him sprawling into a chair at a nearby table, gasping for breath.

"Don't mess with Kingsley, that guy will be running this place one day!" She scolded, taking a seat beside him and seeming not to notice the genuine agony she had caused.

"Sorry, I forgot about your massive crush on that ebony wonder." Magus muttered, straightening out again with some effort.

Dawn looked mortified and about to jab his ribs again, but he quickly covered up his vulnerable target.

"Not the ribs, they've just been repaired!" He croaked in protest.

Dawn snapped her head to look at Paige, who nodded sheepishly to confirm the fact.

"What were you doing, McIntyre?" She demanded, lunch forgotten as she glared at her friend.

"Nothing." Magus insisted in a longsuffering moan and tried to take a sandwich from his lunchbox like the matter was dismissed already.

The sandwich was blasted from his hand, with a quick swish of her wrist. Lunch meat, tomato and fragments of bread showered the trio. Paige tried to cover up her head to avoid sandwich shrapnel. The table of Aurors immediately ceased their conversations and watched in mixed amusement and interest, wands having slid from sleeves and pockets on instinct at the sound of the explosion. Upon seeing the pair that were creating the commotion they resumed their hushed chatter though, it was obviously not uncommon to see that particular pair in conflict.

Dawn seemed unaffected by the rain of lunch.

"We were just doing some training." Magus played down the events of the day and hoped that his tough friend would just leave it at that.

"So help me Magus, I will wipe your memory and dump you in a muggle insane asylum." Dawn warned him unconvinced and her wand still threateningly smoking in her hand.

"I bet she'd do it too." Magus told his new partner without a beat of pause.

The wand tip seemed to glow.

"Okay okay, we went to the Hogs Head so I could get that money that Mundungus owed me…"

"Wait, you were serious about that?" Paige exclaimed in an outraged whisper.

"Well, it was 5 gallons and.." He began to reason, but this time Paige cut him off again.

"So you fought those two apes who were shaking him down for money, just so you could get your money off the guy first?!" She continued in dismay.

"What two apes?" Dawn's eyes narrowed.

"Magus, have you been fighting again?" She growled fully absorbing what had been said..

At last Magus had a chance to defend his not so virtuous virtue.

"Dunno who they were, couple of shady looking wizards; dark ones too, based on the tattoos they had."

He described the pair, Paige didn't remember seeing any visible marks on the pair, but then she also hadn't been as close as he had been. She hated to admit it, but his attention to detail was impressive.

Magus turned to face Paige.

"They weren't after money from Dung either, they wanted something much more dangerous."

Glancing around to be sure no one else was listening, he continued at a hiss.

"Information…"

* * *

"So yeah seemed best I put a stop to that endeavour." Magus finished to redeem his recounted feat of valour.

"And you just happened to be there when they were?" Dawn quizzed him suspiciously.

"You know me, Sweets. Luck of the devil." Magus winked roguishly at her, but she remained unconvinced.

Paige spoke up again.

"It is a lot less noble when you still collected the money from Fletcher." She pointed out.

"Jeez New Girl, you have a knack for ruining a good story." Magus complained, taking one of Dawn's untouched sandwiches as payment for his own destroyed one.

Dawn glared at him for his thievery, for his dishonesty and for his general getting into troubleness.

"Oh hey, is that Arthur Weasley? I need to try get him to repair our magic stereo system, it keeps firing out CDs.." Magus remembered, having spotted the balding, ginger wizard enter the cafeteria.

With a mouth still half-full of food, he leapt from his chair to go over and talk to the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Member.

It left just Paige and Dawn sitting at the table.

Dawn shook her head in affectionate disapproval at her unconventional friend, who was engaged in a passionate discussion with Arthur about something muggle in nature no doubt. If she hadn't been so highly observant, she wouldn't have noticed him palm off the small envelope to Mr Weasley or the troubled look it created the recipient.

Paige caught her affectionate gaze and tucked away that idea for later.

"So how long have you worked in the ministry for?" She decided to ask Dawn instead of the question she really wanted to know.

"Oh, about five years I think?" Dawn replied distractedly drawn from own thoughts.

"They didn't have many vacancies anywhere for work when I left Hogwarts, so I took on a position as a junior Obliviator. Turns out I'm actually quite good at altering memories so I never transferred anywhere else."

Paige nodded in understanding and planned how to phrase her next question.

But Dawn beat her to it.

"Magus has been a Reverser for about 6 years I reckon." She pondered on the point, lost in memory.

"His first partner and mentor died just under five years ago too, some said the position was cursed since then and they have never been able to find a replacement that lasted more than a month." Dawn looked forlorn at that thought and her large sad eyes trailed back to man in question who had just passed Arthur a burnt CD for inspection.

Paige paled at yet another piece of information that had been left out of recruitment.

"Your first day is going alright?" Dawn tried to change the subject.

Paige honestly didn't know how to answer that question. Her mentor was one of the more unusual people she had ever met and the job had turned out to be very little like the one she thought she had been accepted for.

She was saved answering by the return of a stoked looking Magus.

"Good old Arthur; he said he'd swing by and take a look at it after lunch."

Magus seemed to have more news to spread, but was interrupted by the 'Tequila' tone. Paige proudly didn't jump this time and Magus stuffed a whole sandwich in his wide mouth.

"Dammit, it's a red." He groaned through a mouthful of food, tapping the watch face to silence it. He clutched up his colourful lunch box and got to his feet.

"A red?" Paige wanted to know, she stood up to follow.

"Another job, urgent too." Magus curtly explained through mouthfuls of strawberry and white chocolate muffin, which he had moved on to devour.

"No rest for the wicked, no lunch either." He mumbled sullenly.

Dawn waved cheerily good bye to the pair until she realised that Magus had nicked her muffin while she wasn't looking too.

"Be careful," She called after the departing pair.

* * *

Paige followed him upstairs and dumped her lunch with his in their cubicle, Magus snatched a red scrap of paper from the Tracer table on the way through.

They left through the fire and he passed her the red memo to read.

It simply said: 75 year old wizard, unresponsive, found by family. 88 Chestermere rd. Sussex. The handwriting was tall, sloped and neat, female; Paige thought and wondered which of the girls had written it.

Knowing now where her satchel was located she retrieved it before he could, earning another nod of approval. Donning the equipment bags, the two stepped into the circle and Paige took up his arm again.

Pop.

They appeared in an urban area outside an unkempt hedge. The letterbox in front of them announced number 88 and Magus took the lead, pushing open the rusted gate. Newspapers were stacked up at the front door and he stepped over them to get inside.

"Hello, Accidental Reversals. Where are we?" He called loudly, taking in the cluttered house and the faint whiff of urine. Paige wrinkled her nose at the mess and odour, unfamiliar with living conditions like this.

A faint, strangled voice called back. "He's in here!" and they followed the sound of it.

Finding their way into a small cold bedroom, they found a middle aged wizard standing beside the bed.

"I came over to see Dad today and he isn't responding." The man explained, he wrung his hands with worry and nodded down in indication to the bed.

That was when Paige saw what would be her first, but certainly not her last dead body.

Paige couldn't speak; every part of her focus was glued to the body in the bed. He didn't look peaceful or asleep like the dead were often described; there was just some difficult to quantify, lacking part of his appearance that left no doubt in her mind that all life was absent. He was an older gentleman, although old seemed an understatement; his eyebrows were long, grey and tawny, his skin hanging in folds. The corpse's entire appearance had taken on a waxy tone and was cold to the touch like marble.

Magus reached forward to touch the deceased, at the neck, perhaps measuring a pulse. He withdrew after a moment and turned to the remaining man in the room.

"I'm sorry to say it, but your father is dead." Magus confirmed in a sombre tone that was so unlike his own.

Paige didn't have to try for a serious expression, she figured her face must have looked as lost as the man's only relative that stood next to her. Magus was still talking, in a soft reassuring tone that she had never heard before, but his words didn't reach her. He seemed to be explaining to the dead man's son what the process was going to be next. She caught something about Magical Law Enforcement turning up to soon to take over the registering of the death.

Before she knew it, he had nodded solemnly to the son and had gently taken her by the arm to guide her back out of the house.

"Are you still with me, Paige?" He gently enquired of her.

Paige felt numb and hollow, but she nodded slowly in an obvious lie.

Magus gentlemanly offered his arm to her and she shakily accepted it.

With a pop they returned to the Preparation Room and Paige ejected her arm from his, stumbling forward. Madly she staggered, feeling weak at the knees and overwhelmed by the recent event.

"Door on the right!" Magus told her, with an inkling as to what was going to come next.

"God dammit." He muttered under his breath and pressed his hand to his forehead in frustration as his student rushed out of sight.

Paige burst into the changing room, sprinting past a line of showers and shoved open the door to one of the toilets.

Sinking to her knees, Paige clutched the edge of the porcelain and she retched violently. What scant lunch she had managed to eat was ejected and sloshed into the toilet bowl, her back and chest racked with each gag.

Her gagging turned into sobs and after a short while she became aware of a presence behind her.

Magus McIntyre leaned in the doorway, his steely eyes evaluating her like he was contemplating which counter curse would work best.

Embarrassed by her actions and her now unkempt state, Paige kept her head over the toilet, waiting for the nausea to subside.

A large hand appeared beside her offering a good sized wad of toilet paper.

"The first dead one you see can be rough." He murmured awkwardly shifting weight from one foot to the other.

Paige gratefully accepted his offer and spat bitterly, before wiping her mouth. Venomously she threw the used scrap of paper into the bowl and she carefully got up to flush the toilet. Dropping the lid back down, Paige sat down on it and held her head in her shaking hands.

"The unexpected shock of the encounter triggers an adrenaline response in your body, which in turn is what makes your body all shaky, pale and want to toss your cookies." Magus clinically explained, crouching in front of his young charge.

Ashamed, Paige refused to meet his gaze and continued to hold her head with one hand and dab at her eyes with the other. How did he know so much about the body's reactions? It was hardly something covered at Hogwarts or on orientation training.

"Do you see many dead people in this job?" She tentatively managed to ask with a deep breath.

"Unfortunately we do." Magus grimly admitted.

"Why? We don't have any spells or potions that can bring back the dead, do we Magus?"

The older wizard shook his head sadly. "There isn't much we can do for them," He confirmed but then added as an afterthought.

"But we can make it an easier ordeal for their families; helping them come to terms and deal with their grief. I think that is a magic of sorts isn't it?"

Paige thoughts were still sluggish and she recalled the house they had just been in and the distressed son, who Magus had sat down and explained things to. The man they left behind was still devastated, yes, but he was on his way to accepting and processing his loss. The magic there had been cast by her mentor's words and Paige suddenly wished she had been able to concentrate on what he had told the man and how it was conveyed.

There was perhaps some different kinds of magic that this man had to teach her, she decided in that moment.

As Magus offered her a hand to get up, Paige realised that her enigmatic mentor, while unorthodox and somewhat complacent was actually, quite an extraordinary individual in his own way. For a brief moment she saw caught a glimpse of the wizard she had first admired when he came to talk to a younger version of herself at Hogwarts.

It didn't mean she liked him yet though, she decided, as he quickly returned to his jovial self; commenting on the panda like appearance her running mascara had created.

He did politely and patiently wait outside in the preparation room while she made herself more presentable to return to the office.

She felt weak and embarrassed by her response, Paige hoped he wasn't judging her for it. It fuelled the first question on her lips when she emerged to meet him.

"Did.. Did you have a hard time when you saw your first dead body, Magus?" She nervously asked her mentor.

His electric blue eyes seemed to darken at the question and his jaw tightened, it was a few moments before he responded. It was the first real serious moment she had seen from him.

"My first was difficult.." Magus slowly answered, his sharp eyes seemed distant in memory.

"For one thing, there were three dead bodies and secondly; I had created one of them."

He stepped into the fire without another word and without looking back.

* * *

Paige was struggling to digest what he had just divulged.

Seeing one dead person was bad enough, but three! And for him to have caused one of them!? It boggled her mind and the curiosity of a Ravenclaw demanded to know more. Unfortunately the cold look that had overtaken her mentor had removed any prospect of asking further questions around it.

Stepping back into the office she saw Magus had been halted by the boss; Unwin.

Un seemed to have an enquiry for the pair. She heard him mention, the Hog's Head as she approached and she figured he must have somehow heard about the mornings shenanigans. Magus shrugged off his question and replied simply with a well-practiced innocent expression.

"Another case of Self-Starting Fires, but we took care of them." He explained with a conspiratorial wink to Paige.

Unwin seemed unconvinced and anxious, but forgot his suspicion as his newest employee was noticed to have joined them.

"Ah Paige! How is your first day going?" He enthusiastically asked her with his usual boyish energy.

"It has been…" Paige started unsure how to answer the question. Her eyes flashed to Magus evaluating her silently and giving her no prompts.

"Interesting. Really interesting." She decided on amiably.

"Nothing like the induction training." Paige couldn't help but add.

Magus seemed to have seen something he liked in his assessment of her and a slow smile grew.

Unwin beamed at her response and turned on Magus like he was a son who had made him proud. Magus gave him a well-practiced glower in return.

"Keep up the good work then, team!" He cheered clapping an impatient Magus on the shoulder and generating an increasing scowl for his affection.

"Thank you, Sir." Paige returned as the man strolled off, full of nervous energy.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Magus shook his head and hissed at her.

"Please don't call him Sir, it makes him think he is in charge.."

"He is our boss though isn't he?" Paige whispered in scandalised confusion as they walked back to their cubicle to eat a late lunch at their desks.

Magus snorted in amusement at the idea and tapped the calendar that hung on the wall of the cubicle, it was filled with Weiner dogs in various costumes. From the tip of his wand long strings were being drawn from the paper and he stretched to attach them to the far wall of the cubicle. It now looked as though a large net hung over his side of the office.

Paige watched in puzzlement at the odd addition to their cubicle.

"He works in his big office and may be in charge of the department, but he isn't even the boss of his own head!" Magus nattered, stuffing a whole sandwich in his mouth once more and swinging himself up onto what Paige now realised was a hammock.

"Huh?" Paige groaned in confusion, with no idea what her mentor was referring to and giving him a dirty look at his apparent laziness.

"Never mind." Her office mate muttered through thick chewing and he lay back in his hammock with a grateful sigh.

He caught her disapproving look from his relaxed position.

"What? There is no rule about being comfortable at work. This is fatigue management." He insisted, he reached a hand above his head, where it disappeared into the sausage dog calendar and returned with a stuffed Schnauzer dog shaped pillow. He tucked it behind his head and kicked his undone boots off to thump heavily onto the office floor.

"Is this what you do every day here at the ministry?" She asked incredulously, picking at her salad halfheartedly.

"Only after lunch." He defended his relaxed state, his eyes slowly closing blissfully.

"Or on weekends." Magus quickly added after a moment's contemplation.

"So what should we.. I be doing?" Paige asked, still struggling with their apparent lack of work.

The man in the hammock shrugged indifferently, making the strings creak and stretch.

"Whatever you want, if we aren't on a job we don't really have much work to do."

"We can practice useful spells or revise theory some other day, but I'm wiped out from my ribs today though." He promised her because of the heated gaze he felt prickling his skin.

Paige thought about that for a second and her eyes landed on her bland empty desk. It seemed so devoid of character and the opposite of Magus's cluttered desk. She had initially wondered how much work he got done at the desk, but now realised that there wasn't much work to be done. Leaning back on her squeaky roller chair and examining his desk she noted his odd collection of curios.

A little model skeleton hung suspended from a little hook in its cranium, she thought she saw its head move, but surely she was imagining it. Scraps of paper littered the table and unusually, he kept a scattered array of muggle pens, forgoing the usual quills favoured by most witches and wizards. A couple of random textbooks were stacked at the end of the desk and looked well battered. Titles like Advanced Transfiguration, The Mastery of Counter-Curses and oddly enough a few muggle medical textbooks were on display. An odd worn grey stone weighed down a set of stained memos and sat perched beside a long dead potted plant of some kind. Random potion ingredients seemed interspersed with junk food wrappers and empty potion vials.

Paige noticed that he didn't seem to have a lot of personal photographs, but she did notice three photos faded and pinned to his carpeted wall at eye level for a seated person.

The first was of an older looking man and woman, she suspected they were his parents. The man had Magus's hair colour, peppered with grey and his lean, but strong physique. He had hard eyes that still somehow radiated warmth, but drew pale in comparison to the soft eyes of the women who stood beside him with an arm around him. His mother was a little plump and seemed to emanate happiness from her lovely smile, her face was narrow at the chin and it was clearly where Magus got his jaw from. It stood out to Paige that it was a muggle photo and therefore still unlike the other two.

The second photo was sometime after Hogwarts, a younger looking Magus; clean shaven and in ministry standard robes. He was grinning his cheeky grin and posing beside an older wizard, who was lean as a whip and with a narrow pointed weasel like face. His dark hair had grey creeping up the temples and he leaned casually against a wall. The pair seemed to be triumphant and happy, the background appeared to be the very office they were currently in, dachshund calendar and everything. Paige smirked at the young fresh faced mentor of hers in the picture, she wondered if this was when he had first started in the department. She looked up from the desk as the man in question, who gave a little snuffle of a snore and shifted in the hammock; obviously a lot had changed.

It was the third and final picture that really drew Paige's attention and raised several more questions as well as her eyebrows. The two people were familiar, Magus and Dawn, the pair in tidy muggle clothes in some poorly lit environment. The photographer had caught a nice shot of the pair laughing hysterically at something, their eyes alight with mirth and mouths open in joy. They continued laughing together for a few moments before settling to just smiles and as Magus in the photo looked away, Dawn continued to glance at him and grin contently. The final transition was the alarmed pair realising they were being filmed, Dawn moving forward fending the camera with an outstretched arm and Magus simply cracking up again at the antics.

Paige couldn't help, but smile at the antics too and again she wondered what the relationship was between the pair.

* * *

Returning her gaze back to her own desk, Paige decided she might unpack her own stuff and decorate her desk a little.

First she unloaded her functional items; quills, pots of ink and some different coloured parchments. Next came some more personal items, a small enchanted rubix cube that constantly flickered and changed to increase the difficulty, her mum had got that for her in her fourth year. With slow reverence she lifted a framed photo from her bag, she made sure Magus still was asleep and she pressed a chaste kiss to the face in the picture and placed it on the desk, where he could watch her.

The photo of her boyfriend was bitter sweet, his friendly features a welcome sight every time she was down, like now. His thick locks of blonde hair were swept back and combed sideways on top, she always forgot how soft and silky it was. She would always tease Lawrence how much better care he took of his hair then she did of her own. His green eyes sparkled in the picture and made her lurch inside from the amount she missed him currently, his square glasses did nothing to diminish the light those intelligent eyes carried. In the photo his fetching smile spread as if he was catching sight of her too.

"Oooh he's handsome!" A girly voice from the doorway called and Paige almost dropped the picture in surprise.

Perergin took up the entrance to their cubicle and eyed the photo in her hand with interest.

"Who's the hunk?" She asked the new girl, causing her to blush red to the roots of her chocolate coloured hair.

"I've told you Amanda, my name is Magus and I'm flattered really." The other occupant chimed in patiently, rolling over in his bed and sending his best roguish grin.

"Not you dicknuts." Amanda shot back sarcastically and she pointed at the picture in Paige's hands.

"Hey, he is cute!" Magus agreed jokingly, plucking the picture from above Paige before she could even squeak in objection.

Anger boiled in her throat as he sat in his hammock and examined the photo.

"Give it back," She growled in irritation.

"A real bookish look to him, isn't there. I would have totally picked him as your type." Magus mused, still not returning the picture.

 _"Accio photo!"_

The picture zoomed out of Magus's hand and Paige snatched it out of mid-air.

"So nice of you to bring a photo of your brother to work." He continued to mock her in a friendly way.

"Shut up, he's not my brother he is my boyfriend." Paige snapped back in irritation, her mentor had a great way of getting her to bite at all his jibes.

Magus and Peregrin made a loud low "ooooo" noise in scandalised amazement, they were joined by Ben and Bryce a few cubicles over, who while they hadn't heard the comment figured they would join in too.

Paige blushed deeply at the attention and squirmed with discomfort.

"Wait. Wait. Let me take a stab at this one first, before you tell me." Magus insisted, covering eyes and massaging his temples as if he was trying to divine the future.

"He was a fellow Ravenclaw, probably a prefect. Big on his study, had great grades. Now working some boring job like magical transportation or international relations?"

Her mentor predicted and Paige was infuriated at each correct point he managed to land, up until the last.

"His job isn't boring, he is actually working to translate runes in Spain!" She defended Lawrence vehemently.

"But he was totally a bookworm prefect wasn't he?" Magus focused on what she hadn't commented on.

Paige scowled at the description and put her hands on her hips defensively.

"And what's wrong with that?" She demanded.

"Ugh you were one too weren't you?" Magus ridiculed throwing his hands up in disgust.

"Ignore Magus, he was expelled from Hogwarts." Peregrin interjected unhelpfully, with a smirk.

Paige's eyebrows shot up at the remark, there was no way.

Magus rolled his eyes like it was an old insult and he was used to arguing it.

"I left by my own volition BEFORE I could be expelled, there is a big difference." He clarified childishly to Peregrin.

"And at least I didn't get diarrhoea one time in potions and shit myself." He added with a challenging glare at Peregrin.

"You're such a jerk, McIntyre!" Peregrin accused him hotly, her plump face heating up.

"Yup, but a jerk who remembers our time in Hogwarts well, If you want to play the story time game." He reminded her with a wide, smarmy grin.

"I'm sorry you had to get paired with him, try not to let him get you killed like the rest." Amanda addressed Paige instead, now ignoring Magus.

"How long did they call you Poopegrin for again? Was it just up until you got busted by McGonagall going to third base with that chimp looking 6th year guy from Slytherin in a closet?" McIntyre shot back crudely, his face darkening a shade at her last comment.

"Fuck off and die McIntyre!" Amanda cried in embarrassment at his words and left the cubicle in a huff.

"I keep trying every day!" He jollily called after her.

Paige was stunned into silence by the recent verbal sparring she had been caught up in.

"So she can be a bit of a bitch sometimes that Peregrin. I wouldn't tell her anything that you wouldn't want the whole floor knowing." Magus lightly warned her.

He didn't seem hungry anymore or sleepy either and he slid down from his hammock, returning it back into the wiener dog calendar.

"We were at Hogwarts the same time, we usually get along alright. Sometimes she just forgets that she is pretty much just an admin clerk around here though." Magus explained, flopping down into his roller chair.

"Did you really get expelled?" Paige couldn't help but ask.

Her mentor chuckled.

"You ask a lot of questions don't ya, New Girl? Ravenclaw through and through."

He mused, evaluating her further with those intense eyes of his.

"I think it is time you and I have a talk about a few things." He decided ominously.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N-** A quieter chapter, but setting the stage for some bigger things and some more daring action. Enjoy.

 _ **-Grey.**_

* * *

"I think it is time you and I have a talk about a few things." Magus announced ominously leaning in close on his office chair.

Seeing the nerves building in his young charge he cut right to the chase.

"We're coming to the end of the day." He started, Paige looked at her watch in confusion; it was only 2:34!

"How do you think you've done so far?" Magus wondered and the pause stretched until Paige realised he was expecting her to answer.

"I don't know, we've done a couple of jobs. I helped out a little." She murmured unable to read anything from his expression.

"You've done well today Kid, you've shown me you have a good head on your shoulders. That is pretty much the only prerequisite for this job." Magus gently assured her.

"But at the last job I.." She started to protest, but he shut her down.

"You behaved exactly as I'd expect a 17 girl to act on seeing her first dead body." He cut across her.

"I can see you are smart, Kid. Hell you're probably a good deal brighter than me. What you need is some pure animal cunning and a crafty teacher." He decided with an approving nod, as if he had someone in mind for the job.

Magus rolled his chair a little closer to Paige and leaned in close to talk to her in an intense hushed whisper.

"Now I ain't the perfect mentor, a great role model or person, but what I am is very, **very** good at this job. I stopped training others a long time ago, I was nothing special at that. But I'm also a sucker for someone with talent and passion. I don't say this very often, but if you want, I'll train you as best I know: teach you how to be the best at this job. The only thing I ask in return is you keep my privacy and you indulge my eccentricities."

"Like drinking, collecting debts and sleeping at work?" Paige challenged him.

"Exactly." He smiled like she was finally getting it.

"And you promise to train me? To take the time and answer all my questions? Honestly" She was sure to clarify.

"There are things I can teach you that no other wizard in the ministry could. And I swear to tell you only the truth, even if it isn't what you want to hear." He promised in return with a slight smirk.

"Deal." Paige finally agreed and held out her hand to seal it with a handshake as her father had always told her.

Magus seemed to like that and he grinned widely.

"Excellent. In that case Paige Calamari."

"Calamisi!" She interjected hotly.

"I take you on as my learner apprentice." He ordained in apparently serious tone, having seemingly not heard her.

"Your what?" Paige didn't get the reference.

"So about your homework for tonight.."

"You're giving me homework, on my first day?" She queried in confusion.

"Jeez I thought you Ravenclaws loooved homework. Here is me trying to do my teachering duty and everything." He threw his hands in the air dramatically like he couldn't be bothered anymore.

"Sorry, go on." Paige apologised quickly.

"It's a joke." He replied shortly.

"I said I'm sorry." She reiterated uncomfortably.

"No your homework, is a joke. Find one and tell it to me tomorrow."

"That is your important homework task?" She doubted his wisdom already.

"Super important. After all I'm the Jedi master here. What I say goes." He assured her, waving his hand in mystique.

"Jedi?"

"You're lucky I'm not making you carry me around in a little backpack.." Magus muttered to himself as if she was ungrateful.

"Oh my god! Watch Star Wars this weekend too and call that homework. Go!" He insisted in frustration as she still had no idea what he was going on about.

Paige wrote down the words Star Wars in her diary, along with the word joke and a big question mark. The questioning of her mentors sanity and the sanity of her decision was increasing by the hour.

Packing up her stuff, she noticed he made no sign of doing the same and was instead scribbling on an inter-office memo in blocky untidy handwriting. She read at least one rude word in the sentence before he snatched it up. His personalised office stationary had his name in a signature block at the bottom. Due to some amusing charm his nickname or alias in the middle seemed to suggestively change with each new minute. It currently read "Magus 'magic mouth' McIntyre".

Folding up the memo into a paper jet he tossed it over the nearest cubicle wall.

"Well see you tomorrow, Magus." Paige said slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Yeah catch ya later Kid and tell the tall ginger bloke outside to come right in." He shot back.

Paige was surprised to see the older red headed man he had been speaking to in the café just coming up to the door of the cubicle.

"Please go right in, he's expecting you." Paige told Arthur, who smiled genially.

Walking past the other offices she waved goodbye to the Ben and Bryce, who grunted back. She called out to the girls on the Tracer desk who nodded as she got to the elevator. As she waited for the elevator to arrive, Paige couldn't help but wonder what her next day at the department would bring?

* * *

Home for Paige was small upstairs loft flat above a pub in the eastern end of London. While not particularly large it was however reasonably affordable to rent on a junior ministry employee's salary. Basic was an understatement, with a double bed, a small sideboard, a tiny kitchen table with two chairs and a set of drawers as the extent of the furniture. The kitchen was pokey and had minimal bench space, with only a single pantry and a small fridge for storage. The bathroom had a leaky tap, no bath and a cramped shower that she constantly knocked her pointed elbows in.

Despite the small size, for Paige it was home.

She had decorated it with lively colours to help brighten up the single roomed flat. Colourful artwork hid the bleak walls, depicting scenes of happy looking rivers and lovers walking beside a flowing stream. Purple vine stickers magically encircled the two plain lightshades and cast interesting shadows into the corners of the room. Her purple Ravenclaw duvet slashed her bed in colour and matched the dark blue pillows. The cramped kitchen had little potted herb plants and a giant pleasantly singing sunflower that reached for the tall ceiling.

Paige sighed in relief as she sat down on the corner of her bed and shrugged out of her shoes for the first time in the day. She was somewhat disappointed to see that her open window remained empty and that no owl had arrived for her from her boyfriend. The minuscule flat seemed much emptier without him sharing it.

Yes, her parents had been concerned when their middle daughter decided firmly to move out of home, halfway across the country to live with her boyfriend in a tiny London flat. But they loved Lawrence almost as much as she did and knew just how independent their daughter was. Paige had always liked to strive out on her own, never wanting and only ever reluctantly accepting help from others.

Closing the window to keep out the cooling late afternoon air, Paige sat down at the small table and began to write a letter to Lawrence to tell him about her first day, just as she had promised she would.

The quill paused in her hand though and for once in her life she didn't know what to write. How could she describe the emotionally and physically charged first day she had just had? How did she describe her unusual new mentor and her other odd colleagues to her boyfriend? She sat in thought for a long time, scribbling down the basics of the day leaving out the really weird stuff that would cause him concern. Light faded outside and Paige was writing in the dark before she knew it, having filled several sheets of parchment.

She yawned, the fatigue of the day suddenly bearing down on her as she rubbed her eyes and closed an envelope full of her rambling writings. Silently, Paige got up and performed her bedtime routine before slipping into her pyjamas and climbing into bed.

* * *

Paige arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed the following morning at 08:25, calling a subdued good morning to the rest of the office she briskly found her way to her cubicle. She was excited for a fresh day, a fresh start and the promise of some learning.

Her high hopes were dampened to see the cubicle empty, when she arrived. Setting her bag down Paige took a seat at the desk and waited.

It was 0905 before something happened, but that something wasn't Magus. Dawn ducked in the doorway to their office, looking like she had only just arrived. Her hair was windswept and her cheeks rosy from the cold wind outside.

"You are here bright and early." She chirped in greeting and Paige's smile flickered.

"What time was I supposed to be here?" The new girl asked in return.

"Did you not go out with Magus last night?" Dawn seemed surprised.

"Go out where?" Paige continued in confusion.

"You guys were rostered on call last night and got called out. I figured you'd catch up on some sleep before coming into the office." Dawn explained slowly.

"I didn't know that I was supposed to be on call!" Paige confessed in horror. Had she missed that detail in orientation? What had the others thought when she didn't show up to a call out? Her chest constricted in anxiety at the thought.

"Cut the Kid some slack, Dawn. It was her first day, so I gave her it off." A familiar voice called and the one and only Magus McIntyre appeared.

As usual he had forgone robes for a pair of faded black jeans and a thick knee length black and grey coat. He was carrying a stack of takeaway coffee cups balanced in one hand and he precariously perched them on the table as he shrugged his jacket off on to a coat stand. His jacket gave way to a simple grass green t-shirt and he slowly started passing out coffees.

"Damn, these butterscotch lattes really grow on you don't they?" He added taking another sip from his cup. The dark lines under his eyes suggested that he probably needed the caffeine.

"How was the night?" Dawn asked him, quirking her face at the unusual taste, but deciding it wasn't so bad. She came inside and sat on her usual spot on the corner of Magus's desk. Paige noticed that Dawn's robes were cut a bit shorter than most, so that it was more like a sundress then a traditional robe. It was a look she actually quite liked, the other girl seemed to pull it off alright anyway.

"Not bad. One job at about 0300: some muppet rolled over in bed and transfigured toadstools all up his wife's back. Or at that was his story anyway." Magus recounted in a bored tone.

Dawn shook her head in amazement, but Paige was interested.

"How did you fix it?" She wanted to know, eager to start her learning immediately.

"Good question." Magus nodded sagely, like he had hoped she would ask. His wise appearance was impaired by the foamy milk moustache he sported.

"So no standard reversing spells would work on her, nothing would remove them."

He told the enraptured audience.

"But then it hit me; he hadn't created them, he had simply engorged them!"

Both girls squirmed at the disgusting thought.

"I know right?" Magus screwed up his face in disgust at the memory.

"So anyway I simply shrunk her funky back fungus and went home to bed." He finished.

"Another life saved by Medicine Man: Magus McIntyre!" Dawn finished up his not-so-adventurous tale with a light, sarcastic tone.

"That Auror yesterday called you the Medicine Man too, didn't he?" Paige suddenly understood.

"Ugh yeah a few of the folk round here like calling me that, something of a bad nickname I guess that seemed to stick." Magus shrugged unconcerned and took another loud slurp of his coffee.

"It's because he actually went through muggle medical school, like to be a doctor!" Dawn proudly told her.

Paige's eyebrows rose in amazement, she had never heard of any wizard who had shunned the magical world to actually take up a muggle career before.

Magus rolled his eyes and pinched his friend's leg, making her squeal.

"Jeez Dawn, give away all my secrets why don't ya?" He grumbled.

"You shouldn't be ashamed of it, you should be proud." Dawn insisted rubbing her injured thigh.

"Proud of having the qualification taken off me by the Healer's Council? Yeah real achievement right there." He sarcastically muttered.

"Don't be Mr. Grumpy this morning, be the funny Medicine Man that everyone loves." Dawn pouted back at him and she tenderly wiped the milk mustache from his lip with her napkin.

Her tact worked.

Magus cracked his crooked grin and turned expectantly to Paige; the one eye that was slightly lower than the other seemed to bore into her.

"Thank you for reminding me, Sweets. Paige here has a great joke for us both."

* * *

Both faces turned on Paige and waited patiently for her to speak.

To find a joke: it had been a hard task for her, in the end she had asked the bartender who worked below her as she passed him on the way up the stairs last night.

Unsurprisingly he had a joke or two on hand.

"What do you call a Hufflepuff with one brain cell?" She slowly read out of her notebook.

Magus and Dawn looked at each other and shrugged

"Gifted." Paige revealed and she couldn't help the small grin that caught on her face.

Her mentor sniggered with laughter and Dawn chuckled too.

"Not bad, Kid." Magus granted her.

But she wasn't finished.

"What do you call a Hufflepuff with two brain cells?" Paige added.

Dawn leaned forward in anticipation.

"What?" She demanded curiously.

"Pregnant." Paige burst out smiling at the punchline. Since when had she ever enjoyed a joke that was mean or degrading?

The small cubicle erupted in laughter, long and loud.

Magus wiped tears of mirth from his eyes and nodded approvingly. Dawn seemed to be held in a fit of giggles.

"Very funny, I was in Hufflepuff and there is a disturbing amount of truth in that joke!" He claimed in mock seriousness.

"Wait, you were a Hufflepuff?" Paige snorted in amusement. She had always just assumed he was a Gryffindor or maybe a Slytherin.

"Sure, the roughest Puff that Sprout had ever seen." Magus rhymed, waving his hands around foolishly like he was a famous rapper. He finished in a ridiculous pose like he was at the photoshoot for the album cover of his terrible white rap group.

"It's true, she still told stories about him after he left." Dawn confirmed with a nostalgic chuckle.

"Yep, that old mandrake of a woman hated my ass. Always said I was in the wrong house." Magus conceded in good humour. Paige had never heard of a student that was disliked by the mellow herbology professor, but she was sure he could well have been the first.

"Well you were always getting into trouble and fights." Dawn defended the teacher in her opinion.

"It was that little private herbology project behind greenhouse 2 that she got really riled up about." Magus winced in recollection.

"So why was my homework to find a joke?" Paige interrupted in confusion.

Magus punched Dawn in the arm in a friendly way as if to reinforce the fighting and trouble part.

"That is to teach you the most important part of this job, Paige." He sagely replied in a Yodaesque tone.

Dawn rolled her eyes at his theatrics and Paige was quick to follow her example.

"To survive in this job you need to find a sense of humour; you will see and deal with some pretty rough things in this career. If you don't learn to laugh at some of it, you'll burn out." Magus explained his core philosophy and in an odd way it made sense.

More surprisingly, Dawn even agreed with him for a change.

"Magus is right." She affirmed and the man in question looked incredulous and made a show of clearing his ears as if he couldn't have heard her right. Dawn threw her empty coffee cup at his head to cease his shenanigans.

"Look at Ben or Bryce: those guys have been doing this much longer than Magus, but are total washouts because they had no sense of humour." She gave as an example.

"So now they live at their desks, dodging all the medical calls and overnight shifts, like a pair of overgrown Flobberworms." Magus ended sarcastically.

"How much fun do you think they have at work?" Dawn posed the question.

"Exactly, don't be like them." Magus warned getting to his feet once more and Paige took this as her cue to do the same.

"On that note, let's go have some fun." He suggested leading the way from the office, both the women followed his lead.


	5. Chapter 5

Magus walked into the fire with a dismissive wave at the Tracer desk, the girls there seemed unsurprised to see them ducking out yet again.

By the time Dawn and Paige had caught up to him, Magus was standing in a dimly lit corner of the Preparation room wearing a set of black track pants, trainers and a grey singlet.

"You want to be good at this job, you have to be fit." He explained at the puzzled look Paige gave him. His shapely arms were folded staunchly across his chest, but they unfurled to gesture around the corner of the room at a set of bars hanging above head height, some ropes dangling from the ceiling and a set of foam mats the floor.

Dawn continued for him. "We start every morning like this if we don't have a call out."

Paige looked apprehensive at the prospect of what was sure to be an intense workout session, she hadn't run since primary school. Hogwarts had never placed a great emphasis on exercise or fitness that wasn't broomstick related. The food ensured that students put on weight rather than lose it.

"Don't look so frightened, Calamari. Go with Dawn and get changed." He urged.

Not reassured at all, Paige followed the other girl into the locker room that was also the joined bathroom and showers. To her surprise there was a locker there with her name on it or at least it read Calamari, instead of Calamisi. She figured it meant her and had a reasonably good idea who had arranged it. Inside she found a surprisingly comfortable set of workout clothes in dull colours and a pair of well sized running shoes. Paige wondered briefly how her mysterious mentor had known her clothing and shoe size, but quickly disregarded the thought as they instead drifted to what exercise he expected from her.

"I haven't really spent much time in the gym.." She confessed quietly to Dawn as they made their way back out to where Magus was waiting.

"I could tell, Rookie: you are all skin and bone." The booming voice of her mentor criticised in a teasing manner while he warmed up.

Magus didn't break stride to mock though, he was busy pummelling a battered looking boxing bag that hung from a chain on the ceiling. Throwing quick, smooth punches he sent the bag jarring with each devastating strike. He mixed up his techniques in no apparent discernible pattern; Jabs, crosses, hooks and even the occasional shuddering elbow strike whenever the distance closed in on the bag. While not overly massive in size or stature, his physique looked hard and the muscles along his shoulders rippled with each hit. Grabbing a towel off a bench nearby, he took a break and approached them.

"What should we start with Dawn?" He deferred to her opinion for a change.

"We should start her off slow and go for a run." Dawn suggested coolly to Paige's horror.

"Good call." Her mentor unfortunately agreed, winching and stretching his recently repaired ribs.

"I hate running." Paige pointed out glumly.

"Me too, but it is much more fun than dying." Magus reasoned in a tone that left little room for discussion.

* * *

They apparated out to one of the nearby parks and stood out in the light drizzle in brief conversation. Dawn and Magus started stretching and Paige did her clumsy best to copy them.

"What if a job comes in?" She asked her mentor apprehensively, eager to do anything but run.

He simply tapped his watch in answer, letting her know that they were still contactable.

"So we will do a bit of a fox and hound thing for this run. That means that Dawn will run in front; fox in both appearance and role." He detailed with a saucy wink that got his foot trodden on firmly and he continued his explanation like it hadn't happened.

"Try to catch her and I will run at the back as the hound, don't let me catch up to you." He described, like it was a training style Paige should be used to.

"Okay? Dawn go!" Magus started them off, before she could raise any complaints.

The shorter woman took off from the mark, moving with practiced ease and Paige barely had time to bound off after her.

As Paige recalled correctly; running felt like dying. Within minutes she was panting like a dog, her chest heaving and her long legs burning. In front of her and growing smaller, Dawn's toned, pale legs powered along unceasingly. Behind her a drumbeat of running feet drew closer and closer as Magus closed the distance up on her. Soon enough she could hear the huff of his breathing almost right down her neck.

"Keep it up, Slim. I know it hurts but you have to push through it." He urged her between puffs of his own.

"Can't." Paige wheezed, slowing her pace more.

"Can. Don't be stupid." Magus growled back almost tripping over the slower runner in front of him.

The difficulty increased though; her breathing ragged and her muscles feeling weaker and jelly like with each new agonising foot fall. Tears of frustration welled in Paige's eyes and she carried on for another fifty metres before finally slowing to a walk.

Magus pulled up beside her looking annoyed.

"Don't stop running, it is always harder to start again." He ordered her gruffly, with mild shortness of breath himself.

"This is stupid! Why are we even bothering to run, when we can apparate?" Paige haughtily accosted him, frustrated and embarrassed she tried to catch her breath to argue the idea.

Magus snorted at her suggestion.

"Go right ahead. If you can apparate right now, even two metres, I'll never make you run again."

This challenge threw Paige off, but she gamely drew her wand and tried to concentrate. Between her rapid breathing, the ache in her chest and the rushing pulse in her ears it was impossible though. After a minute of embarrassed silence she opened her eyes once more and met her mentor's smug gaze.

"Not so easy is it? Tired, excited and emotional, makes it pretty hard to apparate right? If it was that easy we would all just run from fights rather than duelling. Also, how do you plan on escaping danger if you lose your wand?" Magus pointed out the wisdom of the exercise evenly.

"But it is possible to apparate..." Paige argued with him, not willing to let the issue drop.

"It sure is but takes practice and focus, how do you think we are getting back to the office after the run?" He slyly agreed.

Paige didn't have an answer to that and dejectedly slowly started to run again. She was coming to hate how often her stupid mentor was right; it felt like hell to start running again.

"That a girl. Fitness severely impacts our ability to work and survive." He supported her, taking off at a gentle pace behind them.

It was a first and painful run, but to Paige's credit she did as he ordered and finished it albeit at a flobberworms pace.

* * *

Twenty minutes later and true to his word, they apparated back to the Preparation room, but that wasn't the end of the days exercise. Paige found once more her mentor was annoyingly right, she had been unable to apparate at the finish of their run and had been forced to take Dawn's offered arm and apparate back with her.

From there Magus and Dawn put her though her paces on a number of activities. Paige jumped with a skipping rope until she thought her already aching knees would give out, her hands were rubbed raw trying to climb a thick rope that hung from the ceiling. She almost managed one chinup on the overhead bars and proudly did ten press-ups on the soft spongy floor mat. Everything she did, the other two did as well and then some, but they did it together, so she could watch their technique. Paige had muscles aching where she was unaware that muscles existed, after a minute of static bridges.

Finally they finished up on the boxing bag. Magus demonstrated several different strikes that he wanted her to do and patiently corrected her technique with each.

"Muggle brawling; it is a bit frowned upon in wizarding society, but damn useful to know." Dawn explained as she corrected Paige once more on how to get some power behind an elbow strike.

"Wizards get hung up on fighting with a wand and forget how to actually fight." Magus agreed in amusement.

He finished off his drill taking to the bag with his thick weapon like wand. With incredible power and speed he lashed the bag with flowing continuous strikes until he almost lost grip on the wand from sweat.

The three retired to the changing rooms to shower and get changed. The shower was sorely needed given how gross and sweaty Paige found herself. She felt comforted that they had all been in the same state, but somehow the other two seemed to look more relaxed and attractive with it and less like the bright red, haggard, dying witch she saw in her own mirror. Everything ached and the hot water was a gift to relax her underused muscles. Despite the worn condition of her body though, Paige felt somewhat elated and healthier from the exercise.

Magus and Dawn were waiting for her and completely destroying any fitness benefit by sipping away at a couple of ice cold beers.

"It's a great way to wake up in the morning." Magus told her as she declined a beer and found that only an hour had passed. He was dead right though, Paige felt like she had been jolted awake from the brisk exercise. The pain of a body unused to exercise had now reduced to a dull ache and Magus had explained it as the first stage in becoming fitter.

"And it means I can fit into a cute costume for the office Halloween party next week." Dawn added happily as they returned to the office.

"Where were you planning on losing weight from again?" Magus enquired earnestly, appraisingly looking her up and down. Paige was inclined to agree, her friend was in fine shape already.

"Arse." Dawn cursed at him, jabbing him in the rib with a pointed hand. From the number of times Paige had seen this similar scene occur, she figured her mentor must have a permanent dent in his ribs.

"No, that looks pretty good." He assured her, taking another peek for good measure and receiving a second sharp prod for his trouble.

"Jeez, get a room you too." Peregrin loudly complained as they passed.

"Shut up, Peregrin." Magus lightly riposted.

Seeing Paige following after the pair, Peregrin addressed her instead.

"They kidnapped you for one of their weird couple fitness sessions did they?"

Paige simply nodded tiredly, not knowing what else to say and not necessarily disagreeing with the description either.

"Not all of all us have a cake for a patronus, Peregrin." Magus shot back harshly, leaving the plump woman spluttering in indignation and calling curses to his back.

He would have got another jab for the comment if Dawn hadn't been giggling so much.

* * *

Dawn gave the two reversers a little wave as she ducked back onto the Obliviator side to see if she had missed anything while they were gone.

Magus and Paige slumped down into their respective chairs, he rattled the coffee cup beside him to see if he had any left. He was in luck and eagerly took a loud slurp of the now cold beverage. Paige eyed his calendar in interest and wondered if her mentor would let her have a little cat nap after their intense fitness session.

Paige was about to ask Magus a question when she was loudly interrupted.

"Tequila!" The watch yelled in celebration interrupting the relaxation and causing its wearer to cuss wearily. Shoving his feet into the weathered black leather boots that he had not yet replaced, Magus pushed himself to his feet with a grunt.

He slapped the watch to stop the annoying tune and kicked his chair back under his desk.

"No rest for the wicked." Magus quipped as they left the office.

"Be safe!" Dawn warned as always from over the top of several cubicles.

Peregrin was waiting for them with another red dispatch.

"What have we got?" Magus exhaustedly enquired.

"Some sort of disturbance at a cheap hostel, South Scotland." The Tracer told him vaguely.

"Fighting and arguing heard by nearby muggles and a call put through their police. I diverted the muggle police assignment though when we started detecting high levels of magic being used at the location."

"We got any of our own law enforcement muppets on it?" Magus wanted to know.

"Dispatched at the same time as you, should meet you there."

"Thank you."

Paige noticed all animosity seemed gone between the two and that they were suddenly professionals all of a sudden. It was a term she didn't apply to her mentor very often.

Magus sculled back the last of his now cold coffee and threw it at nearby bin, missing it horribly. Ignoring the mess, he strode off with his student towards the open fireplace.

Kitting up in the preparation room, Magus grabbed Paige's arm in warning.

"Stay frosty on this one, Kid. Could be some danger in it by the sounds of it."

She nodded her understanding.

When she went to take his arm he gently shrugged her off.

"Time to practice your apparation. Aim for the corner of the street rather than the address given, we might not want to suddenly appear in the middle of this one." He carefully detailed for her.

Paige was nervous for such a long distance move, especially to a location she had never visited, but she nodded once more gamely and concentrated on the address in her mind.

"I'll go first." Magus offered stepping into the apparation circle and disappearing with a crack.

Paige took a deep breath, blowing away some of her nerves and focusing on the magic she needed. On wobbly legs she stepped into the circle and disappeared.

* * *

She reappeared startlingly on the roof of a house to a quiet slow clap. Her mentor was standing twenty feet away in the street, giving her sarcastic slow applause. Blushing furiously, Paige leapt from the roof, using a cushioning charm to break her fall. At least she hadn't splinched herself, Paige thought in relief.

"Not bad for a first try." He conceded at her crestfallen expression.

A loud bang sounded from further up the street.

"Focus up. Stay frosty." Magus reminded her sharply, crouching instinctively and he cautiously led the way.

As they approached the hostel Magus paused and cocked his head animal like.

"Something ain't right here." He hissed to Paige, who had followed his lead and had her wand at the ready. They dashed at a silent crouched run to take concealment behind a bushy shrub in a brick planter box that was outside one of the townhouses. The position afforded them a good view of the door to the address in question.

A loud male scream sounded from nearby, followed by shouting in a foreign language.

"Dammit, where are those chumps from magical law enforcement?" Magus muttered in frustration, as the screaming turned into a long and drawn out wail. He tapped away in frustration at the blinking watch face on his wrist.

Seconds seemed to drag and Paige was straining at the bit wanting to get in and help.

The agonising tone of a man in pain had changed pitch now so that it sounded almost less than human. The high pitched keen made the hairs on the back of Paige's neck stand on end. Beside her, Magus restlessly tightened his vest and slung his manbag a little higher, all the while never removing his eyes from the direction of the noise.

And then all of a sudden it ceased. An ominous silence replaced it, a tense foreboding calmness that somehow almost seemed worse.

Still crouched in concealment among the low hedge outside the town house, the pair of Reversers tensed as the door to the hostel opened.

Three men in long dark cloaks emerged, each wore a mask; a horrifying personalised visage of death.

Death Eaters.

"Oh shit!" Magus whispered and Paige gasped.

Her gasp must have carried further then Paige thought though, because in an instant all three figures suddenly whipped their wands up and opened fire with curses in the direction of her noise.

* * *

 **A/N-** Ooooh Cliff hanger! ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N- Death Eaters! Oh No! ;)**

* * *

Magus dragged Paige through the hedge with him to take cover on the other side of chest height, bricked garden as the Death Eaters attempted to flank the pair. The hedge shredded around them with the weight of spells upon it and the surrounding buildings shuddered from multiple impacts. The overwhelming terror of it all held Paige paralyzed and a scream involuntarily escaped her throat.

"Send something back at them!" Magus ordered irately, his own wand firing away. He swung it in whirling, carving arcs like he had used on the boxing bag, creating a flurry of movement around his body that batted away incoming hexs and flung out his own at the peak of every swing. But his casting was significantly slower than his opponents was, for every three spells he deflected, Magus would fire only one well aimed spell. It seemed to be an effective defence strategy though.

One of the Death Eaters was suddenly crushed to the ground under the weight of his cloak as it was transfigured into solid lead, a grey beam of energy had slipped under his guard.

Another copped a jet of light in the face and promptly began screaming in high pitched tones as his mask became red hot. In panic he stripped it from his burnt face revelaing flat brutal features that Paige didn't recognise. He lashed a green whip from the tip of his wand at the pair and it cut a mark an entire foot deep in the brick where it barely missed.

Leaves burned and rained down, as the hedge above them wilted from the onslaught of offensive spells. The air was transformed into a whirling chaos of multi-coloured light and explosions.

The flash filled sky seemed to choke all the air from Paige and she huddled behind the bricked cover, fighting to control her breathing. Focusing on the determined tableau of her mentor fighting for his life with a furious expression, Paige managed to slow her hyperventilating lungs. With numb hands she clasped her wand tighter and reached up to fire her first ever stunning charm. The un-aimed spell soared harmlessly over the top of the Death Eaters, who didn't even bother ducking. The ferocious defensive put up by her mentor dominated their complete attention to avoid getting hit.

The leaden cloaked Death Eater had shrugged out from under his overburdened item of clothing and sent something horrible and purple at Magus where it slipped under his whirling arms and grazed past the side of his face. Magus growled in pain as a slice opened up all the way from his cheek to his ear, blood streamed from the wound.

Something hot burnt at the shoulder of Paige's robe as it brushed by and she yelped in pain: a lucky near miss that carved a deep chunk out of the brick planter box the pair were huddled behind.

Pain turned into indignant anger and Paige returned fire with vengeance, hurling rapid fire spell after spell at the three opponents. The spells started landing closer as she became more practiced at aiming.

"That a girl!" Magus called encouraging, dashing from the low cover to a nearby arched doorway and batting a blood red spell into the ground at his feet, before cracking his wand out again like a whip.

His pale blue light hit one of the Death Eaters, who at first seemed unaffected, but abruptly started furiously tearing at his robes, bellowing in agony.

Magus crowed loudly in triumph and laughter, from her own cover Paige couldn't help but snort in amusement too. As they watched the Death Eater somehow frantically ripped his own underpants off, which appeared to have been partially transfigured into some kind of bulbous purple jellyfish. Long blue tentacles had trailed raised, angry red lines all up the unfortunate villains legs and even as he hurled away the horrific offending pair of monster briefs that continued to sting his limbs.

She hated to think what disfiguring injuries it had left elsewhere.

His fellow fighters paused in horror momentarily in disgust at the pulsating purple, half-formed underwear creature that was slung in front of them.

They were snapped back into the battle as a stunning spell struck the burnt faced Death Eater. He slumped to the ground like a marionette with the strings suddenly cut.

Paige almost whooped with elation at having actually hit something, her first successful stunning spell.

"Keep down, Kid!" Magus reminded her, somewhat hypocritically as he leaned from his doorway to keep up the barrage.

The jelly-fished fighter limped in agony and fought back with sadistic fury; in a violent wave of his wand the building Magus was sheltered in the doorway of explosively began to collapse and slide on its foundations.

"Magus!" Paige cried in terror as her plucky mentor disappeared from sight in a thundering mushroom cloud of dust. His voice didn't answer and cold hands closed around her heart.

With only one target left, the two remaining Death Eaters focussed their withering fire back on Paige. Bricks tore free from their mortar and exploded, peppering the terrified girl with shards of brick. Dust caked and choked every surface, reducing the visibility in the street to mere metres.

Paige screamed as a half dozen loud cracks sounded nearby.

A sudden realisation crossed her mind; this was how she was going to die, pinned down by dark magic behind a lousy brick garden box. Tears escaped her eyes before she could stop them and her throat heaved with emotion. Part of her wanted to throw her wand down in surrender, to beg for leniency from the dark wizards. She was running on autopilot, her trembling hand tentatively reaching out from her cover to fire un-aimed spells at her attackers in an attempt to ward them off. Her defence and resolve was crumbling though; her one woman offensive held no candle to the heroic last stand her mentor had taken.

* * *

Suddenly more voices yelled and called through the swirling dust.

Ministry robed wizards emerged in the shroud, rapidly casting in the direction of the Death Eaters. Paige's heart leapt in gratitude as a tall strongly built wizard threw a shield charm over her and then promptly tripped over a loose brick and face planted.

 _My hero!_ She thought derisively watching the clumsy man quickly find his feet again and move to crouch beside her, his green eyes sharply focussed back towards the danger, despite his swollen bleeding nose and streaming eyes.

One of the witches that was advancing on the Death Eaters fell to a toxic dark brown coloured hex, her whole body writhing and contorting in agony. Her screams simply blended in with the chaos of background noise that assaulted her ears. The man beside her was yelling something, but it all sounded quiet and muted, Paige couldn't make sense of it.

In the smoke and dust, wraith like figures danced, throwing multi-coloured streams of light at each other, until finally a true silence descended.

Paige tentatively looked up from her point of cover and saw all three of the Death Eaters were gone, having apparently apparated.

She almost jumped out of her skin, at the large hand that clasped her bicep and insistently urged her to stand. Trembling, she found it difficult but not impossible.

Paige found herself looking up in the broken nosed face of the young wizard who had shielded and stayed with her. He had dull friendly features that were slurred from his recent fall, his short dark hair had a sharp widows peak to it and was streaked with dust.

 _"_ _Episky"_ She murmured, feeling the words rather than hearing them and she straightened out his rather large nose and reduced the swelling that had begun to start. The ungrateful recipient yowled mutedly in pain and clutched his face.

Volume had just started to fade back in and she finally heard what he said.

"Your partner is asking for you, he needs help." The low baritones told her again and gestured towards the battle field.

 _Help!_ That one word rung in her head and she nodded to follow him, dreading to see what sort of help her mentor required.

* * *

Faint pops and cracks issued from all around as more ministry officials transported in to provide support. She walked past the collapsed building where several wizards were levitating away rubble to search for victims.

Suddenly there he was; Magus McIntyre, her eccentric Irish mentor. He was down on one knee over a prone young wizard, her robes stained thickly with blood and cut away to the hip.

Her mentor was working spells frantically with one hand and splashing dittany with another. Paige blanched as she saw the horrific wound on the witch's thigh. Her pale skin was flecked with blood and it pooled heavily underneath her, a gruesome open wound the size of a grapefruit took up most of her femur. The skin had been eaten away like acid had been spilt on her and the striated bands of muscle underneath twitched and pulsed whenever her leg moved. Most startlingly as Paige watched, the wound started to creep and stretch, expanding like it was a living thing trying to consume more skin. Fighting hard against it, was Magus who dripped sweat and poured dittany generously, growing skin back almost as quickly as it disappeared. His job was made more difficult by the constant restless movement of the leg; a response to the excruciating pain by the nearly unconscious witch.

Magus was so focussed on his task he didn't even look up, when she called to him. The large cut on his cheek still bleed freely down his face and he was covered in so much dusk he looked like a blood flecked old man.

"Necrotising curse!" He hissed in disgust, clearly fighting a losing battle.

"Quick, take over here, Paige. I've got something I want to try and it might just save the leg." He roughly shoved the dittany in her shaking hands and she continued pouring the smoking liquid.

"Tiny Tim, hold the patient still." Magus sharply ordered the tall wizard who had led Paige over.

Looking uncertain, the large wizard knelt to pin the wounded witch's body to the ground and lessen the struggling she did.

The wound and treatment were no doubt agonising to the patient who was partly conscious, her eyes shut but moaning and writhing weakly. Her skin had a horrid dusky tinge to it and all three people working on her kneeled in the sticky growing pool of blood.

Trying not to focus on the gruesome flesh eating curse, Paige poured liberally and cast furiously as her mentor had done, she tried not to watch what he was doing.

From his dusty dragon hide vest, he had drawn a small kit. From inside of the sterile packaging he took out an ordinary looking surgical scalpel.

"Keep going no matter what; I have to keep ahead of the curse with my cutting." He explained grimly and made the first incision. Dark blood fully immersed his hand but he carried on anyway, deftly cutting in quick slices around the outside of the affected tissue. Moments that felt like hours later, he pulled away with a basketball sized hoop of flesh that was still rapidly shrinking. In disgust, he Frisbee threw the flap of flesh away and incinerated it in one movement of his wand.

Paige looked down at the wound site or what was left of it and saw a giant pulsing red clot forming up over the hole. It was lucky too, since they were both completely out of dittany and the patient was nearly out of blood. Paige slapped a large bandage over top the raw wound and her wand made it wrap and tighten itself.

The patient had stopped struggling and now lay still, her breathing settled and less laboured.

Magus breathed a big sigh of relief and sent his charge a very forced grin.

"They don't show you that one on orientation." He joked, scouring his bloody hands with his wand.

Paige shook her head words still not coming, she recognised Unwin Doit making his bandy legged way over.

The lofty wizard who had protected Paige turned his head and vomited violently into the nearby scorched bushes.

"Weak stomach huh, Tim?" Magus heckled the queasy young man, who was now wiping his mouth on his sleeve in embarrassment.

Magus finally stood, rubbing his stiff knees and pausing over a new rip in his jeans. He was now covered almost head to toe in blood in various stages of drying, some of it was his own, most of it was not.

"Bollocks!" He exclaimed, either at his own state or about the sudden appearance of their boss.

"Any significant event you'll notice every manager and his dog turn up for a nosey." Magus irritably told Paige in an undertone before their manager made it to them.

A clearly flustered Unwin started to say something to the pair, but Magus roughly shoved his med bag into the man's arms.

"Package that one up Unwin and take them straight across to St Mungos. She just became the first person to survive a necrotising curse intact." He ordered the department head and the stammering man had no choice to reply, the steely tone in which it was delivered left little room for argument.

Paige looked uncertainly between the two and looked to stay and help the boss, but Magus called to her.

"Come on Callamari, we've got other patients to attend to." He beckoned and the junior reverser gave Unwin an apologetic look, before hastening after her stumbling mentor.

* * *

Limping further into the maelstrom of chaos that was the scene of the battle, the pair worked quickly; mending minor cuts and fractures, examining injured muggles who had been in the hostel or nearby. There were at least two dead muggles among the rubble by their last count. Muggle ambulances had turned up and were being held back until their mind wiped patients could be loaded.

Paige saw Dawn standing in front of a group of four young muggle men and speaking to them in a slow commanding tone. The dulcet expressions on their faces suggested she was busy modifying their memories. As soon as she was done with the group, Dawn madly dashed over to her friends.

"You scared the hell out of me!" She accused an unwary Magus who had just finished inspecting an old muggle lady with a scalp laceration. He sealed it shut with a permanent sticking charm and then directed her over to another one of the waiting Obliviators. He had just been explaining the merits of the simple spell to Paige for closing minor cuts and that it even worked on muggles because it wasn't really healing magic.

Dawn tackled him into a fierce hug that left him wincing and gasping for air. She was obviously not put off by his filthy appearance or the fact that now she was covered in blood too.

Paige was astonished to then receive the same treatment from her new friend, she winced as her shoulder was lightly brushed and one side of her face stung hotly.

With a worried expression, Dawn brushed dust out of Magus's hair and turned his face to inspect the cut that had finally stopped bleeding.

"You're never far from trouble, Magus." She scolded him.

"Not on purpose!" He grumbled back in his light Irish lilt.

"What the hell happened?" She demanded to know from the pair.

"I think we would all like to know that." An unfamiliar voice chimed in at a low gravelly tone.

The trio turned to see the head of magical enforcement, Rufus Scrimgeour looking like an expectant, regally aged lion. He was accompanied at his right side by the stoic Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt and a third older man that Paige had never met.

Magus merely nodded in exhausted greeting to Scrimgeour and gave Kingsley a tight smile.

"Oh nice of you guys from enforcement to finally show up!" He drawled sarcastically. Scrimgeour and the third man exchanged weary looks at his attitude.

"Paige and I were pretty much done with those three Death Eaters by the time you arrived." Magus decided in a derisive tone that earned him further ire from the three men. Paige blushed furiously, knowing that a degree of this would be aimed at her by association.

Dawn elbowed Magus hard in the ribs and shrugged apologetically at Kingsley.

"Death Eaters!? Preposterous!" A new voice exclaimed and a very pompous short man appeared behind the other three older men. He nervously clutched at a lime green bowler hat. Ostentatiously, he held a handkerchief over his mouth and nose in a concession to the still settling dust. It was still clearly identifiable who he was though.

Cornelius Fudge; the minister of magic himself.

"Or else it was one hell of a fancy dress party." The baritone ebony wizard dryly commented and he held up a Death Eater mask with skin still seared to the inside of it. The smell of sour burnt bacon lingered around it.

Several paces behind the group, Fudge's ginger haired lapdog of an assistant shot the Auror a reproachful look, which was promptly ignored.

"I'm surprised you could see anything of your opponents, McIntyre from underneath that building?" Rufus pointed out bluntly.

"You really had them on the ropes." The third wizard observed in a wheezy voice.

"Clearly you were mistaken, Mr McIntyre." Fudge agreed sternly.

"Nope. Definitely Death Eaters, three of them; had the spooky robes and kinky masks as you can see." Magus simply disagreed and indicated the mask that was still in Kingsley's large hands.

"I think one of them even shouted 'Voldemort rules' before Paige stunned him." He added in a sarcastic stage whisper.

"Do you honestly expect us to believe that the two of you fought off three Death Eaters?" The third man doubtfully proposed.

"Forgive me Mr Stake, we found that a preferable option to simply dying painfully like these folk?" Magus rudely directed his comment at the third man and waved his arms around at the destroyed buildings around them.

His rib cracked again as Dawn hit him with another sharp elbow.

Kingsley came to the rescue and defused the situation.

"I think we can agree it was a valiant effort by our two Reversers here. Mulis, you should be proud of the bravery of your officers." The last part was directed at the man Magus had referred to as Mr. Stake.

"Quite, even if their attitudes could be better." Rufus eventually relented.

"Magus, perhaps you would be so kind to tell us how things started here?" Mulis Stake patiently requested, tiredly removing a notebook and quill.

"Fine, but we have to make this quick. I've got a critical patient being packaged as we speak that needs to be seen at St Mungos." Magus sourly agreed.

Between him and Paige, they gave the report on all they had seen.

"Well I must apologise for the delay by my department, we were given the wrong address to back you up at." Rufus apologised once they had finished their account amid many derisive snorts from Fudge. Scrimgeour sounded angry and frustrated, not apologetic at all.

"There has been a rather large amount of disinformation lately." Kingsley growled in a low tone.

"What were the Death Eaters doing here though?" Dawn asked the head of departments and the Minister.

Paige noticed that in all the proceedings that Dawn had been pointedly ignored and even shot dirty looks by Scrimgeour and the others, this happened again when she asked the question.

"There were no Death Eaters, Ms Dennisoff! That is purely conjecture at this point!" Fudge snapped angrily and Paige noticed a muscle tighten in Shacklebolt's jaw.

* * *

"What these… dark wizards.. of unknown affiliation… Were doing here is classified, I'm sorry." Rufus growled slowly and deliberately choosing his words carefully, he eyed Dawn as if she was party to the wizards in question.

Behind Fudge a young burly wizard with a fully shaven head and a thick ginger beard, levitated a corpse on a stretcher down what was left of the stairs of the hostel. The body was covered in a sheet, but a single arm hung off the side, a faded dark mark burned on the inside of the bloodstained arm.

Lynx-eyed Magus couldn't help but notice this and folded his arms defensively.

If you didn't know the man like Paige or Dawn did, you would have missed how he concealed his wand on the inside of his forearm and hand. Somehow the corner of the stretcher became snagged on a non-existent obstacle and the whole vessel lurched forward. The corpse slid forward and the head lolled out from under the sheet, revealing the pale and tortured face of Igor Karkaroff.

"It looks classified!" Dawn snorted in amusement, nodding to the displaced body. Paige covered her mouth in shock, she recognised the face from the Tri-wizard cup last year.

"Smooth moves, Angus!" Magus smarmily taunted the square jawed wizard who had been levitating the corpse, who was now hastily moving to cover the body back up again.

"Shut up Magus, ya stupid Squib!" The furious wizard on corpse detail growled back.

"Says the guy who can't even levitate a dead Death Eater." Magus returned fire with his mouth mockingly and further infuriating the beleaguered young wizard.

Fudge went purple and looked minutes away from a brain aneurism.

Mulis raised his voice to be heard over the bickering as Kingsley, Percy and Rufus hurried to help the man named Angus.

"Enough!" Mulis Stake roared. "McIntyre, you and Ms Calamisi here…"

"Calamari." Magus incorrectly corrected him, while somehow keeping a straight face, Dawn snickered, but hastily turned it into a cough. Paige was stunned by the audacity and outrageousness of her mentor and couldn't find a sound to make in amendment.

"Whatever!" Growled Stake in reply. "You are both on stand down for a couple of days, get cleaned up and go home." He ordered. "Bryce and Ben will take your patient across to St Mungos."

"Sweet, day off!" Magus crowed raising his hand to Paige for a high five that she was too petrified of her department head to return. Fudge had been hailed by another wizard and gratefully looked ready to leave the stressful conversation. His flashed glare at Mulis said that there discussion wasn't done.

"Not a word of these.. Death Eater.. conspiracies to anyone. Do you understand me?" He hissed vehemently to the gathered group.

As a whole they nodded except for Magus who of course had to make one last smartass comment.

"But what am I supposed to write about in my monthly article with the Quibbler?" He whinged and Paige was fairly certain he was joking. Although if he was a regular contributor that would not overly surprise her.

Fudge continued his beetroot impression and his eyes seemed to flicker with barely contained indignation and fury, but he managed to suppress it, storming away instead. Percy shot the Reverser a final dirty look of his own, before striding off after his boss. No one was amused, except of course Magus who appeared not to give a shit.

Rufus took over things once more.

"McIntyre, I expect a report on my desk by the end of the week about what you saw and what happened." He demanded sternly.

"I'll use my best crayons." Magus promised with a smartass grin, unperturbed by the glare that was being sent his way by several managers.

"Ms Calamisi, I would also request a meeting with you on Friday to get your account of events and to check on your how you are managing after the encounter." Kingsley Shacklebolt added in his low slow tone.

It took Paige a moment to realise that she was being addressed by the formidable man.

"Friday? Yes of course…" She nervously agreed.

Dawn started shepherding the two Reversers away, when she was stopped by Mulis Stake.

"Ms Dennisoff, don't you have more muggle minds to alter?" He coldly reminded her and effectively stopping her from leaving with the others.

"So you are right, Stake." She grated in irritation and gave her departing friend's one last lingering worried look. Absently she grazed a finger gently across the cut on Magus's cheek, the dust had seemed to stem the bleeding, but not before it had coated one whole side of his rugged face.

"Yeah come on Sweets, get to it; someone has to make sure everyone forgets the bitching firefight we had just had." He teased her, indicating that he couldn't be mortally injured.

Dawn appreciated the reassurance and transformed her expression of concern to a long suffering one instead and headed back towards where the remaining muggles were congregated.

"I'll find you after this and take the rest of the day off too." She promised the pair with a conspiratorial wink.

As the two Reversers limped away, Paige faintly heard Rufus talking with Mulis.

"Are you sure you want that impertinent, jackass of a wizard in charge of training your new impressionable staff members?" Scrimgeour inquired with poorly disguised doubt and dislike.

Mulis sighed heavily, like what he had to say next hurt to escape his lips.

"Yes. McIntyre is a grade A asshole, an unstable alcoholic and his grasp of magic is bizarre and stunted, but it is true what everyone says; he is the best damned field medic we have. That girl from your department today, Robins was it? Like many other of our Law Enforcement team, owe that man their life."

Magus smirked silently and pretended not to have heard either.

His smirk faded when Mulis added that he would also personally make sure that Magus was put on report for insubordination after the mornings antics.


	7. Chapter 7

Outside the destroyed hostel where the group had been in debate, a confused magical enforcement officer tentatively held up the quivering purple partially transfigured pair of underwear that had been hastily discarded by the wearer. He looked uncertain whether to place it in an evidence bag or not.

Magus couldn't help getting in a few parting quips about it when the wizard looked questioningly at him, as they passed.

"It was supposed to be a Box Jellyfish; the most horrible stinging sea creature to haunt the Australian coasts." Magus explained at the confused and disgusted looks of the few gathering onlookers.

This particular species seemed to still have deformed leg holes in it surrounded by cruel looking tentacles. The rough shape that remained suggested that they were once a pair of boxer briefs.

There were collective winces and groans of discomfort from the small gathered group of wizards, simply at the thought of where they had been.

"More like a Boxers Jellyfish." Paige amended, a tiny smile growing on her face as the ridiculous thought appeared in her mind.

Her voice must have carried more then she thought because the small group of ministry workers broke in chuckles and laughter at the comment.

Magus chuckled along with them before looking at her quite astounded.

"My god I have corrupted you; that was a joke you just made!" He remarked like it was the most scandalous thing in the wizarding world.

"And a funny one too!" Her mentor chuckled again in disbelief.

She sent him a flat expression to try and show him that it had been a rare lapse in character for her. One corner of her mouth kept trying to twitch upwards in betrayal though.

He put an arm across her good shoulder in a gentle guiding manner and led her to the outskirts of the magical cordon that was still being formed. Half way there, Paige reckoned it was as much to support his own limping gait as it was to lead her.

Without asking, he apparated the pair of them back to the preparation room.

Paige shrugged off his shoulder and dropped her supply bag wearily.

As usual her mentor showed her what to do next.

He gestured to the locker room that she had entered yesterday to throw up and she went inside once more.

Magus slowly followed her and when she turned back for an explanation, Paige was alarmed to see that he had already kicked his shoes off, stripped away his torn shirt and was in the process of unbuttoning his jeans.

"Woah.. What!?" She exclaimed loudly.

Magus grunted at her. Modesty like manners was obviously not one of his strong points.

"Showers." He pointed to a line of walled off shower stalls against one wall.

"Go clean yourself up and then we will have a look at any wounds okay?" He elaborated, kicking free of his dusty, bloodstained jeans and limping to the first stall in only his blue patterned happy hippogriff boxers. He left behind a gruesome trail of bloody footprints to the shower.

* * *

Paige blushed bright red once more and tried not to stare as he walked away. Stepping into one of the cubicles she started to get undressed herself, albeit much slower and more modestly then her mentor had. Taking off her glasses, she found several large chips to the lenses and one arm was seriously askew.

Magus continued to talk to her through the thin shower wall, his voice floating over the top of the stall.

"You are going to have a very strong urge to sleep with me right now, but it should pass in time." His voice called loudly and she covered her now bare chest at the mere scandalous suggestion.

"As if!" Paige yelled back in outrage, but after timidly stepping under the hot cascading water the image of the naked man just one wall over unescapably entered her head. She had a fleeting memory of earlier that morning, well-muscled arms rippling as they struck the boxing bag. The sudden heat of the steam did make her feel dizzy and a crazy exhilarated part of her brain wondered what would happen if she did walk out and around to the next shower right now. If she stepped under the stream with him. She had to mentally slap herself at the thought and painfully doused her face to try and wash the idea out of her head.

"Don't worry," He assured her as if reading her mind. "It is natural, again caused by a huge response to adrenaline and endorphins released from surviving a super stressful situation." Magus's echoing voice explained.

A hand appeared over the top of the cubicle and offered her a bottle of fruity smelling body wash. Paige gladly accepted it, trying not to touch his fingers when she did so.

 _It's a natural response_ , she considered with her ever active Ravenclaw mind. _Does that mean he is feeling the same, wanting the same?_

The bold temptation to reach for her door and to try his own, sparked again for an instant, his voice bringing her out of the contemplation.

"You will be full of crazy energy and buzzing for the next few hours, which again is all part of the response. Your brain feels giddy for surviving." Magus continued.

Paige couldn't see very well without her glasses, but could make out the body wash that had been passed to her appeared to be for children and proudly stated 'no more tears!' The pictured teddy bears on the bottle faded in and out with the steam.

"Then you will become crazy hungry, followed by the mad need to sleep as you come down off the adrenaline." Magus continued to detail casually as if it was the most common thing in the world. Maybe for him it was.

Very reluctantly, Paige allowed the water to wash over her head and she gasped in pain as the side of her face seemed to burn afresh with pain. The blood tinged water naturally ran down her neck and she whimpered weakly as it stung across her injured right shoulder.

"Jeez, keep it down over there, Calamari! Some people are trying to get clean!" Magus's loud teasing voice carried over the top of the stall. He started singing the latest muggle pop hit in a loud, off key tone to drown her out.

Despite the pain, Paige couldn't help but giggle at his antics and she realised that was probably his whole point in doing so. She was grateful for the distraction as the shower lashed her skin, clearing away dust, sweat, blood and grime. It seemed to find tiny cuts and scrapes that she was unaware that she had received in the first place. Looking down at her bare feet, she saw the water running a horrid brown colour from a combination of blood and dust that was washing off her body. Soon her whole body felt heated and raw, but finally clean.

* * *

Paige stopped the water and found that a large fluffy blue towel had appeared waiting on the towel rail in her cubicle. An oversized white robe hung off a hook on the back of the door and she figured it was meant for her. Knocking every other new tender spot, Paige dried herself slowly and heard the silence begin as the water shut off next to her as well.

Timidly padding from the cubicle in bare feet she found Magus already seated on the long changing room bench seat wearing an identical robe. He didn't look up as she came in, he was preoccupied; his hands stained in blood, a small puddle had dripped through the wooden slats in the seat where his legs rested.

He was braced with pain as he gruesomely dug into his own thigh with a heavy bladed knife, two inches of wooden shrapnel as thick as a finger protruded from the bleeding leg. With the blade he scraped up a couple of splinters that had been holding it fast. Gritting his teeth, the young reverser took a good grip on the impaled object and slowly pulled. A growl escaped and grew in his throat as another two inches of bloodstained wood shard appeared, ending in a ragged, sharp end. Dittany splashed and smoked over the wound site, taking several agonising seconds before it finally stopped bubbling and only a jagged, raw, scar remained.

Paige's eyes bulged in shock at the injury her mentor had endured up until then.

"Bloody Death Eaters! Fuckity Fucking Fuck!" Magus shouted in intermingled fury and pain.

"Holy shit, monkey balls Jesus that hurt!" He finally croaked, slumping to lie flat on the bench, his face deathly pale and dripping with sweat. One of his shaking hands sought his dusty vest and drew a familiar silver flask from the pocket. With the thirst of a dying man, he brought the vessel to his lips and gulped away. With a last sigh and burp, he let the silver flask slip from his grasp and clatter empty to the floor.

"Feels better being clean right?" Magus greeted her without opening his eyes and she tried not to let her eyes be drawn to the gap in his robe and the taut glimpse of his chest it showed. The slight spark from before was not quite gone and she drew herself back up to his face by concentrating hard on the image of Lawrence saved in her head. The two were like chalk and cheese; her cultured, neat, intelligent boyfriend and the rough, drunken hooligan of a mentor

"Clean but sore." She confessed, tugging the robe away from her uncomfortable injured shoulder. Magus's eyes had opened and followed her hand, gingerly he moved to sit on the bench. After several fortifying gulps from a second flask he had somehow produced, the wounded man finally stood.

"To be expected, let's have a look at your wounds." He suggested with a slight slur, taking his wand from the pocket of his robe and indicating for her to sit. Paige slowly sat down on the changing bench and turned her injured side to face him.

Paige looked at him uncertainly, suddenly shy once more and acutely aware that she was only wearing a bathrobe. His tender hand caught at her still damp hair and delicately brushed it across to the side, exposing her neck.

Magus was patient and very gently slipped down the shoulder of her robe. He seemed to move impossibly slowly and Paige felt her breathing increase the lower the shoulder of the garment slipped. His breath blew hotly on her skin and smelt strongly of some rich spirits and adventure. It was an intoxicating combination and Paige herself felt a little drunk for only ever the second time in her life.

Paige turned her head slightly towards him, her lips parted and saw that he had shrugged out just enough shoulder to inspect the wound. It was the wound that his eyes were affixed to and nothing else that he may have been able to see.

"Nasty burn ya got here." He mumbled, pulling the skin tight with expert hands. Paige finally worked up the courage to have a look herself and she gasped in horror at the sight. Her usually smooth olive skin was stark white and bubbled hideously in appearance, an area about the size of her hand. No wonder it had hurt so much in the shower. Tears sprung to her eyes before she could help it and leaked down her cheek and neck, finding his hands.

"Hey, hey…" Magus cooed softly and tilted her head gently back to look at him. It was a dangerous move given the emotionally charged moment and their current state of undress.

"I know it looks bad, but let's see what we can do for it first okay?" Magus fixed her with an earnest expression and demanded her calmness.

Paige nodded resolutely and gave a single sniff before setting her mouth in a grim slit. Magus had reached for one of the medbags he had brought with him.

"Here we are." He announced as if he was going to pull a rabbit from a hat and he produced a small tub of foul smelling white cream.

With infinite care, he dabbed the pungent paste over the large burn on her shoulder and even started applying it up the side of her neck and face.

"It isn't as bad up here." He assured her as he smeared it on one of her cheeks. The cream felt horribly cold, yet wonderful at the same time, as if he had covered her burns in tuna flavoured ice-cream.

He hummed while he worked, the same ridiculous pop tune and Paige fought a smile despite her pain.

"Leave that on for a bit." The senior Reverser instructed gently and stood back straight. He stretched and groaned as his back creaked and snapped.

* * *

Slowly Magus limped to sit beside Paige and she cocked her head to look at him curiously. He was close enough that she could smell his fresh scent and her eyes were drawn to the cut on his cheek. It was about three inches long and ran horizontally on a slight drop from the start of his left cheek down to the corner of his jaw. It was clean and no longer bled, but was reasonably deep and had opened to about a centimetre at its widest point. It looked very painful, she decided and slowly reached a hand up to touch the edge of it. An inch higher and her mentor would have lost his eye.

"Dittany?" She offered him from the bag of supplies, she started dabbing small dabs of it on the various cuts she had.

"Already tired it and a few other things too. It must have been a nasty hex because I can't fix it with magic." He shrugged, reaching for his well-worn vest.

Out of a pocket he dug out what looked like a small battered sewing kit.

"It is a muggle medicine skill, but we might try suturing it shut." Magus suggested handing her the small kit.

Paige looked at the tiny fabric kit full of needles, catgut and scissors. The idea terrified her; she knew what sewing was, but to tie a wound shut seemed so barbaric.

"You want me to do it?" She confirmed in disbelief.

"Well Dawn is my usual seamstress, but she is predisposed." He joked and further added fuel to the idea that they were maybe more then friends.

Paige decided now was as good a time as any to ask, it also served as a good distraction and might give him a chance to change his mind. Being just a little drunk off his breath had probably increased her boldness too.

"So you and Dawn are together?" Paige outright asked him, looking doubtfully at the sewing kit without really knowing where to start.

Magus seemed to lose the ability to meet her eye, a very forced grin found his face.

"Everyone thinks that." He mumbled with an odd unreadable expression.

"I'm sort of her only friend and she's my best friend, or is it the other way round?" He pondered in a moment of not so serious contemplation.

"Maybe a bit of both." He finally settled on with a distant affectionate look.

"Are we together, like a couple though? Hmm." Magus stalled as he tried to find the right words.

"I think we are less then what I would like and probably more then what she wants." He settled on with a sad snort of amusement.

Paige frowned at his answer in confusion, she would have thought it the other way if anything. Her mentor was a strange and complicated guy. Also quite clueless at times it would seem.

"Are you sure you got that right?" Paige doubted him and gave him a small smile.

"Hell, I don't know." Magus closed down once more as heard someone apparate outside into the preparation room.

Paige thought he was going to say something else but instead he prodded her face with his wand. The cold feeling of the cream vanished and she reached up a hand to feel smooth hot skin running from her face and down her neck. When she got to the part where the burn had been worst, Paige felt rough distortion. Looking down in trepidation her eyes found the area to be a mishmash of her fleshy tones in a distorted cobweb of hardened scar tissue. Ever so tenderly she run a hand over the area of burnt scarring, no pain jumped up at her fingertips, but nor did any other sensation. Her eyes prickled once more at the ugly sight of imperfection and she turned away so her mentor didn't see her reaction.

His voice came beside her all the same, distant and obviously pained.

"Scars aren't necessarily a bad thing Paige; they mean you survived and are stronger for it." He murmured and she followed his voice to look at him once more. He was well qualified to talk on the area since he had numerous scars littering his body and that was only the ones she could see.

* * *

Magus's ears pricked up suddenly, animal-like, at the hastily approaching footsteps and to no ones surprise Dawn appeared in the doorway to the changing room. She did a double take and seemed put off by the fact that the inhabitants were only wearing plain bathrobes and were sitting together on the seats.

"Ah there is my seamstress!" Magus announced brightly and with a herculean effort, he had swung his feet back round to touch the cold tiled floor once more. Grimacing, he pushed his way to his feet and was met by an unusually quiet Dawn. She was still looking from one Reverser to the other with curiosity and something else hidden in her eyes.

"Am I allowed in here wearing clothes?" Dawn derisively asked the pair and for the first time Paige had ever heard it, there was something less than nice in her tone.

"Nope, Sorry. I guess you better strip down too." Magus immediately answered with solemn seriousness and summoning a white robe from a nearby shower. He waved the item enticingly to see if he could tempt her.

It was his cheeky expression that finally did it.

Slowly her concerned gaze came to rest on only his and she tenderly reached up to touch his cheek where the serious facial injury started. To her surprise he pulled her into a fierce hug, leaning into her heavily.

Pushing him away with her face still torn with worry she snorted in laughter at him and choked back a sob.

"An inch higher and you would have lost a bloody eye.." Dawn whispered in mortification, tracing the cut with a gentle finger.

"Wouldn't be so bad; I could get a badass eyepatch." Magus joked covering up an eye with his hand to try out the look.

"Or a creepy, magical x-ray eye!" He pondered and started staring at places where his perverse x-ray would be closely examining.

"You may still lose an eye yet." Dawn cautioned him, folding her arms across her chest.

"One of these days Magus McIntyre I'm going to get fed up with sewing your insides back up into you." She added unthreateningly under her breath.

"No you won't, you love hurting me." He reminded her and she playfully flicked one of his ears.

"Sit down then and stay still, you foolish man-child." She ordered sternly taking up the sewing kit from the seat.

"Okay, but I was serious about the no clothes thing." Magus added with a straight face. He reached forward slowly to undo a button at the top of her robe, only to have his hand playfully batted away.

The needle punched through his skin perhaps a little harder than it had to.

"Oww fucking hell, Sweets!" He cursed through gritted teeth, his hands clutching the edge of the bench with white knuckles.

"Paige, get your skinny European ass up here." Dawn called to the other girl in a sharp manner.

The young reverser jumped from her seat, despite her fatigue, at her friend's beck and call.

"Yes, Dawn?" She enquired cautiously, carefully replacing her glasses again.

"Watch close; I'll do half and you will do the rest." Dawn told her and moved to aside so the new officer could get a better view of her technique.

"Steady hands please Rookie, this is my beautiful face you are practicing on." Her mentor reminded the pair as they swapped over and he watched a few drops of blood drip off his chin.

Paige tried to keep her hands from shaking as best she could and copied Dawns tight technique, she was alarmed to feel how hard she had to tug the thin chord in order to close up the edges of the wound. Dawn watched closely and coached her through the process, offering words of support when required.

When the 6th and final stitch was done, Dawn cut the end of the spool and began to pack up.

"Go wash your face, Magus." She ordered the man once more in that stern commanding voice she had to use with him sometimes.

Magus complied with only a minor amount of muttering for a change.

For a short moment it was only Paige and Dawn left standing there, the former feeling awkward. She nervously broke the silence, knowing she needed to say something about their situation.

"I'm sorry about all this…" Paige uttered, robbed of all eloquence due to her fatigue, she gestured to her dress and then over at the absent Magus.

"He was treating a burn on my shoulder after we got cleaned up and that is it." She elaborated quickly.

"There was nothing else going on, I wouldn't.." Paige staggered to a verbal halt as she continued to meet silence from the other woman. She could feel the deep green eyes evaluating her and for a fleeting instant Paige wondered if this was the look someone got before they had their memory wiped and were dumped in an insane asylum.

Dawn must had sensed the desperate truth the good-natured girl was trying to convey and her emerald eyes transitioned to something more friendly.

She proved her good will by pulling the younger girl into a tight maternal hug.

"How are you holding up, honey?" Dawn sympathetically asked while they held each other tight. From the force of the return squeeze and her sob, Dawn could tell it was just what the other needed.

"I..I don't know. It was my first ever fight. I feel so lucky to be alive. There were three Death Eaters trying to kill us!" Paige babbled suddenly, her thoughts all tumbling out in a wild stream.

"I shouldn't be alive! Magus was amazing, so brave and formidable. I wouldn't have stood a chance without him.." She finished still incredulous at her own survival.

Dawn chuckled dryly at the last comment.

"Well, Magus has fights as frequent as most people have haircuts. He should be very good at it by now." She reasoned with a teasing tone as the man in question reappeared with sopping wet hair once more.

"Who gets haircuts?" Magus wondered aloud, "My hair just seems to get singed or trimmed down by duelling."

"I cut your hair last week." Dawn deadpanned calling him out on his bullshit.

"And it was quite the fight to do so." Magus reminded her smarmily.

"It is still uneven on the right side." He accused her running a hand over his tufting hair.

"I've never seen or heard of anyone fighting like you do." Paige slowly stated eyeing her mentor with an unceasing interest.

"You could have stunned or disarmed those men at the bar yesterday or the Death Eaters today, but you didn't." She accused him.

Magus seemed surprised by her observation and he shared a meaningful gaze at Dawn.

"Very observant." Dawn granted the new Reverser with the hint of an approving smile.

"Indeed." Magus agreed suspiciously. He drew his wand in the subtle underhanded way he always did that would only be noticed by the most observant of witches or wizards.

In a flash the wand was suddenly pointed at Paige's astonished face.

 _"_ _Stupefy!"_


	8. Chapter 8

A pitifully small red spark fired from the wand tip and hit Paige right in the forehead causing what felt like a tiny shock of static electricity.

"Ouch!" She cried mildly, in as much surprise as minor pain.

Magus broke down laughing at her flabbergasted expression and Dawn couldn't help but join in.

"Seriously? You can't do a simple stunning charm?!" Paige finally settled on, blown away by the ineptitude of it all. Her heart rate was still in the hundreds from the startling unexpected demonstration.

Magus pointed the wand at her and with a goofy ludicrous expression tried another spell.

 _"_ _Expelliarmus!"_

The wand that Paige had now drawn by instinct gave a feeble tug that she wouldn't have noticed unless she was expecting it.

Magus slipped his wand back into the pocket of his bathrobe and sat back down wearily before he began explaining.

"I've never known whether the problem was wand or wizard, but I have never been able to do a single offensive spell. Most defensive spells too I'm completely hopeless at." He confessed in a resigned tone.

"That is really bizarre, since when..?" Paige considered, thinking back to her theory of magic classes and the sometimes temperamental nature of ones magic.

"Always I guess. I found this out very early on my arrival at Hogwarts and the other kids ripped the piss out of me about it. Most of them thought I was a Squib or that I had somehow filched some wizard's admission letter. Hell, there was a strong rumour for a while that I had just wandered onto the castle and that no one had the heart to send me away." Magus recounted the story to his student in a dull detached tone.

"I was the one muggle kid at Hogwarts." He chuckled darkly.

"But I've seen you do magic, some very impressive magic too. So you can't be a Squib." Paige protested, remembering now that the rude officer from earlier had called him one.

"Well as it turned out, while I sucked at most magic and I mean totally sucked, I did end up having a prodigious skill in transfiguration and general charms; especially medical ones." Magus revealed and as if to prove it he prodded his discarded towel on the floor. A brilliant peacock suddenly appeared and strutted around the bathroom fluffing its plumage.

"And the other students stopped teasing you once they found out?" Paige eagerly finished the story for him.

Inaccurately as it turned out, Dawn smirked having obviously already heard this story.

"Nope, but after I kicked the crap out of a few of them, word got round and people left me alone." He simply amended as if it was a much more elegant solution. With a jab of his wand the peacock froze in place and its plumage dulled granite grey, a wave of stone rippled across it like a reversed necrotising hex. The peacock statue stared in amazement through sightless eyes.

Magus hesitated but then slowly handed his student the wand that he never let stray far from his hand.

Paige was surprised by the weight and length of it, the wand was more like a quarter staff then a magical implement. Her hands ran the length and found numerous nicks, scrapes and irregularities in the hard cedar.

"I always wondered why I had such a heavier, solid wand. Turns out is it because it is great for knocking in teeth and cracking skulls, something I can't always do with conventional magic." Magus detailed thoughtfully.

"That explains your unusual dueling style; using non-aggressive magic as weapons." Paige realised, as pieces fell into place and she passed the wand back to its owner. It was becoming increasing apparent what an unusual wizard her mentor truly was.

"Supplemented with plenty of physical violence and actual weapons." Dawn added in a way that suggested this was his primary form of fighting in the past.

"How do all our conversations keep bloody well coming back to me again?" Magus lamented, pushing back up to his feet in mild irritation and obvious pain. With a quick whip of his wrist the wand twirled faster than the eye could track and violently smashed the stone peacock to debris. The pile of stone slowly changed back into a dirty towel once more.

Dawn rolled her eyes at her dramatic friend and went about the line of lockers to return with some clean clothes for the pair of them.

Paige gratefully took hers and hastily turned around as her shameless mentor simply wandered into a corner and disrobed to change.

"I know you both really want to, but no peeking ladies." He warned the pair in his usual teasing tone.

His last word ended in a yelp as Dawn stung him on his bare behind with a jet of sparks.

Paige decided it was probably safer to step into a cubicle once more to change after that. She could still hear the odd pair arguing outside and see a crack of them through the door.

"Like I don't have enough injuries right now, Dennison.." He whinged, once more clothed and rubbing a tender butt cheek.

"Well if you weren't such an arrogant git maybe you wouldn't get hurt so often." Dawn patronisingly reminded him.

"Come on, let's go get something to eat." Magus suggested and deflected, deftly avoiding her fair point.

"Love the way you think." Dawn agreed, "I'm done for the day too." She firmly decided, before looking over her shoulder.

"Are you going to invite, Paige?" She added.

The sliver of Magus in view shrugged nonchalantly.

"I guess I can always kill her later if she reveals the location of my fortress of solitude." He concluded conspiratorially, before raising his voice.

"Hey Rookie, you coming or what?" Magus yelled to Paige and she hurried to emerge from the cubicle in an oversized set of sweats.

"Coming where?" She smartly wanted clarification.

"Brunch at mine?" Magus offered, waggling his eyebrows and stretching the sutured scar on his cheek.

"Do I need to get dressed up any more than this?" Paige gestured at her current state of dress. To be fair Magus was dressed pretty similar in grey track pants and a simple dark blue t-shirt.

"Hell no, brunch is a pyjamas sort of affair." Dawn reassured her as she ducked under Magus's arm to serve as a crutch for him.

Together the three of them slowly made their way over to the apparation circle.

Dawn seemed to lend some strength to the knackered pair and did the majority of the apparation.

* * *

With a loud crack the three appeared on a cobbled street.

Soon enough Paige was sedately following the pair of older friends down dank London lanes into an area of small town flats. Paige watched her feet, heavy with fatigue and in a pair of spare running shoes that were apparently stocked in the changing room. A distant part of Paige wondered how much spare clothing they had there to replace damaged and soiled ministry clothes.

Magus and Dawn slowed as they approached a short lane with a line of old squat brick flats taking up most of the street. Magus had his arm still linked over Dawn's shoulder to support himself and to casual passer-by's they must have simply looked like any other young enamoured couple.

Jovial even in spite of his state, Magus waved enthusiastically to a young woman who was hanging out her washing with two young kids racing around her legs. The two little boys yelled his and Dawn's names loudly and frantically waved back. Paige could hear the light tinkle of Dawns giggle at the enthusiastic welcome.

Paige grinned despite herself, it wasn't overly surprising to her that her immature partner got on well with the neighbours kids. He was himself, a giant kid.

Still wearing his smile, Magus approached the flat next to the woman's and shrugged off of Dawn's supporting shoulder. The flat had a small median of scraggly grass out front, where a hammock had been slung between the washing line and a flourishing lemon tree.

Magus ensured his wand hand was obscured by his body, before tapping the door with his wand and whispering several words. Dawn tapped her foot impatiently and looked at her watch in mocking amusement.

Locks clicked back into place and he pushed the plain oak door open.

Paige noted in surprise that he entered with his wand held underhanded again in his tactical grip, his eyes scanning from near to far, left to right as he led the way into the flat. The flat was surprisingly modern and roomy inside, with no hint of the brick exterior façade. It still very much had a lived in feel to it, with dishes drying on the bench in a rack, a large TV on the wall and a comfortable, squashy looking couch with a short coffee table in front of it, covered in empty bottles and food wrappers.

Paige started to comment on his suspicious behaviour, but he cut her off with a silencing gesture. Leaving her at the doorway, he carefully limped his way around the apartment, clearing each of the three adorning rooms in turn with help from Dawn. Only then did he visibly relax and return to her with his usual enigmatic smirk.

"These are the beginning of dark times." Magus gave her quickly as way of an explanation for his paranoid movements, before brightening.

"Welcome to Casa De McIntyre." He declared, waving his hands in a revelatory gesture.

"It's surprisingly nice." She noted, enjoying the scowl that earned her. Dawn smirked again into her hand as she kicked off her shoes.

"What do you mean surprisingly?"

"Well based on how messy your office and desk are, I just assumed.." Paige trailed off.

"Fair call," He granted with a nonchalant shrug.

"Pro tip for young players, do what I did: buy some tiny dingy flat and modify the hell out of it with magic." Magus advised her with a jaunty wink.

"Smart." Paige reluctantly conceded, with a nod still taking in her surroundings. Her mentor appeared to have some rather odd belongings; his whole place was an unusual mix of muggle and magic. In that way it reflected the man who lived there.

"Right, the grand tour." He brusquely began. Dawn had already reentered one of the rooms and closed the door, she returned moments later in a pair of black tights and fuzzy green sweater, her feet were cosily ensconced in a pair of white fluffy slippers. She headed straight for the kitchen and started getting out pots and pans with practiced ease.

"Longue. Kitchen." Magus indicated somewhat unnecessarily at the obvious open plan features. Paige noticed the centrepiece of his kitchen was the island bar in the middle with three stools tucked under it. Displayed above it on a number of shelves were various bottle of alcohol in a dizzying array of colours. Additional drink fixtures seemed set into one side of the bar, a tray of refilling ice and a couple of small pots of tiny umbrellas, olives and assorted sliced fruit.

"My room, spare room and the bathroom." He indicated one after the other from his position leaning against the island bar. Paige astutely noted that Daw had returned from the room he referred to as spare and not his own.

As Magus jabbered, his hands worked on their own accord, mixing and combining different bottles. It was all being piled into a silver mixing flask, which he topped with ice and tapped with his wand. The drink started shaking itself with a loud rattle.

Magus whipped three cocktail glasses out of the cupboard and set them on the bench.

"Try this," He insisted noting her discouraged look.

With the skill of a professional barmen, he snatched the flask from mid-air and skilfully rolled it down the length of his arm. He ended the roll by flicking it up in the air and catching it behind his back. Deftly he popped the lid off with one hand and poured the radioactive green drink that was flecked with brown into the three glasses.

Paige eyed the drink suspiciously, but accepted it reluctantly. Dawn was happily slurping away at her own with no hesitation, so it was clearly not poisonous as the appearance may suggest.

Under his watchful gaze, she took a tiny sip and was surprised by the pleasantly sweet flavour with just a hint of a fruity tang at the end.

"Mmm." She murmured in hesitant approval and took a larger appreciative drink.

"Not bad huh? I call it a 'Centaurs Beard'." Magus happily announced supping away at his own cocktail.

"It's nice." Paige granted him, having never had a real cocktail before and certainly not a big drinker historically. She could already feel a buzz at the back of her skull from what was clearly a highly alcoholic drink.

* * *

At the stove Dawn was instructing bacon to sizzle itself and eggs to begin a suicidal leap into a saucepan, discarding their shells as they did so.

Magus ducked clumsily around the busy chef on his wounded leg, taking out plates and cutlery.

"What can I do to help?" Paige asked suddenly when she became aware that everyone was contributing but her.

"Relax. We got this." Dawn kindly told her.

"Sit down before ya fall down, Rookie." Magus agreed and gestured to a bar stool.

Gratefully the young witch took a seat and continued to watch the odd couple working in a coordinated dance of breakfast creation. Magus was dicing mushrooms and peppers with an expert's ability with a blade. With a deft flick of both knife and cutting board he sent the diced vegetables into the frying pan that Dawn was stirring and mixing.

A lovely smell was coming from Dawn's efforts on the stove and it made Paige realise just how incredibly hungry she was. She figured it was probably another by-product of adrenaline.

Paige thought it was oddly hypnotising to watch the pair work and seemed almost rehearsed in its precision and efficiency. Or at least most of the time it was; the rest of the time was spent with Dawn defending whatever she was frying from the curious and hungry host.

Magus was like an annoying scavenger, darting around her with a spoon or fork to steal a taste of how things were going in the pan. Dawn never strayed far from the stove top for this reason and each time she promptly rapped his knuckles with her stirring spoon and reminded him of another job to keep him busy.

Magus moved on to toss a handful of bread up in the air and used his wand like a flamethrower to toast them before skilfully catching each on a plate. Apparently it was breakfast and a show.

"You've obviously made breakfast together a fair few times.." Paige mumbled with a sleepy implying grin.

"Five years' worth of meals, makes you pretty good at it." Dawn coolly replied, not picking up on what Paige was getting at.

As the wonderful smells and friendly banter filled the small flat, Paige rested her head on the counter and just let it all soak in. Her eyelids felt like they weighed a ton.

"Let's eat!" Magus announced loudly at the culmination of their collective work and causing Paige to jerk awake from her pillow of the counter.

Dawn generously doled out scrambled eggs and bacon onto the three plates, while behind her Magus bobbed and weaved even on his bad leg to top up all the drinks

The group of friends retired to the coffee table and chairs to eat, all three of them digging in fiercely.

"Mmmm, you make the best eggs, Sweets." Magus complimented the chef with a mouthful of food.

Paige nodded her agreement eagerly.

Dawn was a gracious cook.

"You are lucky that you sometimes have a sweet mouth on you, Magus McIntyre, because **your** cooking sucks." She reminded him, but grinning all the same at the compliment.

"It's true," He granted her with a shrug, "But I don't need to be a great cook when I have a great you, to stop me from starving." Magus winked roguishly and Paige could now see how he managed to always con Dawn into making him meals.

"Eagh what has you so soppy this morning? Is it blood loss or alcohol?" Dawn teased him, but looked somewhat flattered and touched by his sentiment.

"Both?" Paige suggested, eagerly saying something to try and remind them both that she was still there.

The meal was devoured with vigour and soon only the empty plates and glasses remained. Paige earned her keep by using a domestic spell her mum taught her to levitate the dishes into the sink where they started cleaning themselves.

Dawn nodded her approval.

On the couch beside her, the usually enthusiastic Magus had lolled his head back after the meal, contributing steadily less to conversation and was now emitting little snores.

Dawn shook her head in disapproval when Paige stared at him. With that being said, Paige could feel her own eyelids becoming heavy again and the urge to sleep was incredibly strong.

"Crash in the spare room if you want." Dawn offered her generously in a whisper, obviously noticing her fatigue.

"I thought your room was the spare room?" Paige insinuated suspiciously.

"Oh I don't live here, just visit so much that I have some stuff here." Dawn quickly explained her cheeks becoming a bit red at the idea.

"Uh huh." Paige muttered disbelievingly and slowly got to her feet.

"I should be fine getting home, thanks though." She mumbled, stepping back into her shoes. The floor seemed to give an odd ripple from the earlier alcohol, but her feet somehow found purchase.

Dawn quietly got up, so as not to wake her sleeping couch mate and followed Paige to the door.

The snoring man on the couch gave a loud snuffle and continued his nasal sawing.

"He'll be fine." Dawn assured Paige at her concerned glance back.

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on him again, it's not the first time I've had to." She continued with a world weary expression. The longer she looked back though, the more affectionate the expression became.

"He's almost cute when he isn't awake, drinking and wise quipping." Dawn added with a wink.

"You are good to him." Paige observed about their relationship, whatever its real nature.

"It is not always easy, but then no one has been as loyal and caring towards me like Magus has." Dawn admitted sheepishly, a shadow seeming to cross her face and Paige briefly recalled the shunning and coldness that others sometimes seemed to show her at the ministry.

"Thanks for looking after me too." Paige added, thinking of how protective and maternal her friend had been.

"Don't mention it, Paige. Magus has said you are his apprentice or something now and he doesn't take on muppets." Dawn brushed it off, pulling the younger girl into a brief hug.

"I still haven't watched the Star Wars yet.." Paige guiltily confessed.

"I'm surprised he has kept you on for two days then." Dawn observed in mock seriousness.

"Now I've been meaning to ask: what is this Halloween party everyone is going on about at work?" Paige suddenly remembered.

"The office Halloween party? It is a huge event, always a big blowout. The theme this year is Muggles; so you have to find some sort of muggle costume." Dawn explained, the excitement about the shindig carrying through in her voice.

"What are you going as?" Paige curiously enquired, trying to get an idea what to go as.

"Now that's a secret you'll just have to wait until next week to see." Dawn refused with an air of delighted mystery.

"No fair!" Paige whined but let the topic go. She yawned widely.

"You better get going, before you fall asleep on your feet." Dawn advised.

"See ya Friday." Paige agreed in farewell and started the short walk to the train station.

* * *

Paige slept so soundly on the underground that she barely awoke in time for her stop. With a weariness that seemed to reach her bones, Paige slowly trudged home, the final stairs up to her room the hardest stretch of the journey.

The welcoming sight of her bed beckoned to her and she simply dropped her bag a foot inside the door. Kicking out of her borrowed clothes, Paige sunk straight into the soft covers, ignoring the hot feeling that lingered on of her sides and the whole body ache of the day.

Something sharp nipped at her ear and she awoke again with a start to see a tawny coffee coloured owl perched on her headboard readying its beak for another bite.

"Letter?" She mumbled stupidly at the owl that held out its leg patiently and even waited for her to slowly root around on her dresser for the hefty overseas postage fare.

The thrill of the Spanish postmarked letter woke her up momentarily and she ripped open the stained envelope. On a short handsome scroll of tan parchment was the eagerly awaited letter from Lawrence.

 _My Lady P._ (Lawrence's pet name for Paige, she rolled her eyes affectionately)

 _So lovely to hear from you, I must apologise for the delay in my response; me and the other runologist Luana_ (Paige frowned at the decidedly female sounding name, she pictured a beautiful Spanish local) .. _have been nose to the grindstone in the catacombs._

 _We've already discovered and translated two new runes that the ancient Spanish used, which were seemingly forgotten. The university is quite excited by our findings, they say there is a scholarship in there for us._ (Again Paige didn't like the use of an ' _us_ ' that didn't seem to include her.)

 _..Your first day sounds quite fascinating although your mentor, as you put it, sounds like a real character. If you have any issues with him or want to change mentors I'm sure my uncle can have a talk with Mulis Stake, they are old school friends after all. Seeing dead bodies sounds positively horrendous are you sure that you don't want to take that position as a clerk in the magical maintenance office?_

 _It looks like I'll have Halloween off if all goes well and shall hopefully come back to England for the holiday._

 _It is with much regret that I must keep this short and return to work, please let me know what your plans are for Halloween._

 _Lots of love._

 _Lawrence._

Paige couldn't help but feel a pang of annoyance at her distant boyfriend for his short letter, she had sent him nearly three whole pages. It was offset by the idea that he may be coming home for Halloween in a weeks' time. From what Dawn was saying about the office Halloween party; it was going to be the largest event on the social calendar for a long time and it seemed like the sort of thing that surely Lawrence would like to attend.

For a fleeting moment Paige had a horrifying vision of introducing him to her delinquent mentor. There was no possibility in her mind of the two getting along at all, although the prospect of the two meeting would surely be amusing out of contrast if nothing else.

Feeling drained from the effort of simply reading the letter, Paige rested it carefully on her bedside table, determined to answer it later in the week and promptly went back to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N-** A belated merry Christmas to everyone. Here is your present sorry about the delay, leave a review if you want and enjoy.

 _ **-Grey.**_

* * *

Having the whole rest of the week off did have its perks though; Paige had gotten all her laundry done, had lunch with her parents, read a whole book on defensive charms and caught up on her sleep.

At lunch, her mother had of course fussed over her recent encounter, an event that Paige had wisely omitted many details from. Louise Calamisi was a kind loving woman who made potions as a side business to raising Paige and her sisters. Accordingly, she had a fair number of draughts for her daughter to take upon the revelation of her traumatic experience.

"Are you sure you don't want a draught of dreamless sleep or how about a calming draft?" She had repeatedly offered in concern. Indeed, she seemed as upset about Paige's refusal, as she did the fight itself. A rather old fashioned woman and a scholar herself, she found the idea of magical duelling crass and unladylike.

Although, she had quite helpfully offered a skin softening solution to aid Paige in the reduction of scarring on her burnt shoulder. While healed as best could, the burn still ached and felt overly warm most of the time, this was made worse by the wearing of anything with shoulder straps.

Her father was a different story altogether. A stern hard wizard of great height and stature, Donatello Calamisi was a further Chimera handler and the current head of an Italian based international curse breaking firm. His knuckles had clenched white at the table when he had heard that his youngest daughter had been in a firefight with three Death Eaters. When she had first started recounting the story, Paige was afraid that her father was going to uplift his wand, pop down to the ministry and curse Fudge himself.

Her parents listened in stunned silence as she described her first few days and the first fight she had entered into. She omitted several parts, such as the daily heavy drinking of her mentor and his often obtuse attitude to the ministry.

Accordingly, she must have given her parents the wrong impression of him.

"He sounds like he has his head on straight, to fight off three Death Eaters." Her father gruffly noted seemingly impressed, his thick bushy beard quivering. The grey streaks in it were longer now then she ever remembered.

"I helped him, Dad!" Paige insisted fervently, not wanting her contribution forgotten.

"And he studied at muggle medical school? How peculiar!" Her mother noted with sincere interest as if it was the most foreign of concepts.

"He is really unusual; a bit of a joker." Paige readily agreed.

"Well if he has taken you under his wing and is looking out for you, be grateful." Her father advised her in his usual stern demeanour.

"Yes daddy." Paige loyally intoned as her standard response.

"We should have him round for dinner for some time and maybe your other new friend, Donna was it?" Louise suggested helpfully.

Paige had a sudden horrifying vision of her clowning mentor with his boots resting on the Calamisi dinner table and chugging back her father's good whiskey. In the background of the image, her straight-laced parents watched in disgust and her father had his wand out in outrage.

"Dawn." Paige emerged from her terrifying vision to correct her mother automatically and stuttered for a worthy excuse.

"They are both really busy Mum, working nightshifts and stuff, it might be too hard to organise." She quickly added refusing to look at her father, he had a terrible habit of knowing when she was hiding something.

"I'm sure we can find a night that works." Her mother assured her, not noticing Paige's obvious reluctance.

"McIntyre did you say his name was?" Donatello muttered as if taking careful note of it. Perhaps he had read more into her expression than she had noticed.

"Common name, Irish I think." Paige confirmed nervously.

"I don't recognise it, but it sounds familiar." Her father continued musing as if he hadn't heard her. Paige was sure he was going to be checking in with some of his old friends at the ministry to see what he could find out about her mentor.

The rest of the lunch had been uneventful, her mother talked about the shortage in lacewing supplies, her father discussed a series of crypts that had just been breached in Peru.

Paige heard news from the rest of her family; her younger sister Jessica was due her first Hogsmeade visit soon and she was excited for that. Paige's older sister Maggie, had split from her dirt-bag boyfriend and was still working at Flourish and Blotts. Paige couldn't help but notice the hidden contempt from her mother when she talked about the romantic choice of the sister that was older by two years. Her mum had always hated Noel Neverine, the rough Ex-Slytherin that Maggie had gotten together with when she left Hogwarts. Noel was a tattooed skinhead, who was renowned for his quickness to start fights and to carry a blade on him in addition to a wand. What Noel did for work no one really wanted to know because it probably wasn't very nice and accordingly, Maggie had alienated herself from the family to a large extent with the unconventional pairing. As her mother had often drawn the comparison, "He is no Lawrence..."

* * *

Friday came all too soon for Paige, while she had plenty of time to reply to Lawrence's letter, telling him all about the upcoming ministry Halloween party and imploring him to come. Despite the rest, she still didn't feel ready to return to work.

Stepping back into the office on Friday, Unwin Doit immediately bounced from his office to boyishly pump her hand and enquire about her health after her 'encounter' as he so tactfully put it. After much assurances that she was feeling much better, Paige continued onto her shared office.

At 0830 she was still somehow early for work and had, as usual, beaten her mentor into the office. Instead she found a small sealed envelope on her desk, an interoffice memo as it turned out.

The tidy block letters of Kingsley Shacklebolt were there to remind her of the meeting she was to have with him later that morning. Paige was just rereading the short note again when her mentor made his reluctant appearance.

As usual he looked rough as guts, as if he had rolled straight out of bed and put on the first pair of clothes that he landed on. His usual black jeans and combat boots were contrasted by a crumpled, canary yellow t-shirt that had a picture of a black smiley face, but with black crosses for eyes and a tongue hanging out. It seemed oddly appropriate since he both looked and smelt terribly hungover.

"Sup, Rookie." He greeted gruffly, tossing his man-bag across the room to crash at his desk.

"Good days off?" She asked of him, friendlily but with an edge of sarcasm at his appearance.

"I only took one, think I slept most of it." He shrugged, rubbing a chin over his prickly five o'clock shadowed jaw and yawning deeply.

"Seriously?" Paige's mouth dropped open in shock and horror. Her mentor seemed not to notice and was pouring a combination of milk and coffee liqueur into a bowl of cornflakes.

"Why didn't you take the whole week off, like you told me to do?" She demanded incredulously.

A voice piped up predictably from the door of the cubicle.

"That's what I said, about a hundred times!" An impatient looking Dawn agreed, irritation hanging unusually ugly in her attractive features.

Magus pushed up the aviators that covered a heavily bloodshot eye and the raw wound that lined his cheek. He smiled happily through a mouthful of unconventional breakfast and coffee coloured milk that dribbled down his chin.

Putting his bowl down, he gestured around him.

"The wheels fall off this place when I'm gone. How would the department ever cope without me?" He purported grandly, the effect lost slightly as he still chewed noisily.

Dawn rolled her eyes irritably, but couldn't find an answer yet.

"Well there would be a lot less bloodstained towels in the bathroom." Dawn challenged him eventually.

"Pfff you can't prove that was my blood." Magus stated in a superior manner.

"You're an idiot." Dawn informed him flatly, for what was surely not the first time.

"Total idiot." Paige agreed, glad she was not alone in the opinion. The girls had begun to bond on that point.

Magus seemed completely nonplussed at the concordance and merely slurped loudly the last of the boozy milk from his bowl.

"Besides.." He continued his argument to the two stone-faced witches with folded arms who faced off against him.

"If I didn't come to work who would you have to eat lunch with, Dawn?" He arched an eyebrow questioningly at his defensive friend. Paige assumed they must have meant if she was off sick too, because she found Dawn quite an agreeable lunch buddy.

Dawn opened her mouth to reply, seemed to think better and closed it again with a petulant look.

"Such an idiot, Magus." She settled on restating, but her face betrayed a hint of a smile. The astute wizard obviously picked up on this because he was quick to respond.

"Ah, but I am your idiot." He specified as that was the crucial part.

Dawn shook her head somewhere between amusement and horrific realisation.

"Oh god, don't say that! Dammit, you sort of are, aren't you?"

Still shaking her head, she turned robe and departed in a huff of frustration.

"See ya at lunch, Sweets!" Magus called after her, a triumphant grin alighting his weary face. He appeared convinced that he had won that mornings fight.

* * *

Paige having apparently been forgotten from another one of their arguments simply looked entertained and hid her smile by bringing up her note to reread.

"Oh shit, you got your meeting with Kingsley today don't ya?" Magus realised, eyeing the memo.

"Yup, did you finish your report that you had to write?" Paige asked him doubtfully.

"Hmm what report now?" Magus mumbled with a smirk, barely paying attention and she noticed that he had just been doodling on a napkin from the coffee shop they now frequented. It was a magical stick figure drawing of two people walking down a street. Paige realised that the one with long hair and oversized glasses drawn on their face was probably her, the other one appeared to have three legs and must have been the crude visual representation of himself. As she watched the two figures lay down behind a wall as three black stick figures came out with frowny faces in green pen. Various coloured pens had been used to add life to the roughly drawn flying spells that shot back and forth. Two StickEaters then fell down along with the three legged man in a big puff of smoke as a poorly drawn building disappeared. The final frame showed many wizards and witches turning up holding hands, dancing and singing. In the background of the picture, an unmistakeable underpants jellyfish swam its way around the border.

There was also one final picture that seemed to show a crude caricature of Cornelius Fudge, whose head grew larger and redder until it eventually exploded.

Paige snorted in amusement and disbelief at his laziness and cheek.

"I stayed up all night doing it." Magus sarcastically informed her, roughly stuffing the magic napkin comic into an envelope and throwing it as a paper dart.

"How are you still employed again?" Paige incredulously and genuinely asked him, wondering aloud what was often flitting through her head.

"Hawkeye factor, baaaby." He smarmily revealed as if she should know what that meant.

Paige raised an eyebrow in an uncanny impression of Dawn.

"Now your meeting with Shacklebolt this morning.." He changed the subject rather than explain. Suspiciously he glanced around the cubicle before throwing a muttered _muffliato_ spell at the door and waited until it had enveloped the whole office.

"He's a straight up fella. Don't lie to him, don't embellish anything." Magus cautioned her, in a rare moment of seriousness.

"Is he someone I need to be careful around?" Paige uncertainly asked him, having come to the understanding recently that some people in the ministry were unreliable at best.

"For a different reason. Kingsley is one of the good guys, hell he is one of the best. But part of his chat today will probably be trying to recruit you." Magus slowly explained.

"As an Auror?" Paige checked uncertainly, surely her fighting skills had not been that impressive.

Magus genuinely chuckled at the idea.

"Not a chance, too skinny and certainly not based on your shooting the other day! No he will try and get you to join the secret little club he has with Dumbledore."

"A secret club? What do they do?" Paige asked intrigued at the mention of her old headmaster and one of the greatest wizards in modern history, unless the prophet was to be believed. Her curiosity trumped her hurt feelings and allowed her to disregard his light insults.

"It's mainly gobstones and golf on the weekends I believe." Magus replied with a straight face for almost an entire minute.

"They are gearing up to fight Voldemort and his followers of course." He corrected obviously.

"Does the ministry know about this club?" Paige demanded, uncertain about how she felt about such a group. She had been still unsure whether Voldemort was back and gathering power once more or if it was a tall tale as the media reported. That was before she had battled Death Eaters with her own wand and saw the evidence for herself though.

"Didn't you see the muppet of magic Fudge the other day? That tosspot is in denial, doesn't want to believe the Dark Lord is back in the game." Magus retorted lightly.

"Fudge feels threatened by Dumbledore, thinks he is making up shit to depose him, so their little bird group is still largely underground." He elaborated on the political climate that Paige had missed the development of, while she was at Hogwarts.

"That is why he sent his undersecretary to Hogwarts, to keep an eye on Dumbledore." Paige suddenly understood remembering the article about her stationing earlier in the year.

"Bingo. It's a blessing if you ask me getting her out of here; that repugnant pug of a woman once wrote me up for 'dress inappropriate for work'. Can you believe that? The shirt only had one swear word on it.." Magus nodded his approval.

"So are you and Dawn in this secret group?" Paige asked him remembering the package Magus had taken from Mundungus on their first day together.

Magus wore an odd thoughtful expression at the question.

"Our memberships must have got lost in the mail." He shrugged, trying to play it down.

"They never asked you?" Paige seemed surprised by this, for some reason in her head, her mentor seemed beyond question aligned to the good guys.

Maybe.

Albeit he was a lazy, drunken crusader for the light, but it seemed odd he was never invited.

"Not so much." Magus again shrugged and inspected a dent in his wand carefully.

"I'm maybe seen as a little… unpredictable and Dawn.. Well they had their reasons, I'm told." He elaborated after a minute or so.

"What reasons?" Paige asked in curiosity, but she soon saw she had breached a touchy subject as Magus ignored her question.

"No big deal, we didn't want to be in their silly bird club anyway." He sneered.

"It's a bird club?" Paige was confused now.

"Oh they call it something stupid like 'the Order of the Phoenix' or something. Dumbledore has a real boner for his pet bird." Magus derisively explained.

"Don't get me started on that bloody phoenix of his.. Couldn't spare a couple of lousy tears..." He added in a low mutter

"So you are telling me I shouldn't join up, if Kingsley asks me to?" Paige confirmed she had understood him.

Magus shrugged his broad shoulders indifferently, apparently committed to remaining obtuse this morning.

"Do what ya want, but know that they got a pretty high mortality rate if the last war was anything to go by." He muttered, examining his cheek wound now in the shiny surface of his recently licked clean breakfast spoon.

"Oh." Paige uttered in understanding as the reason for his warning.

"The way I see it; you can still do the right thing and stand up for what matters without being part of some big movement. I don't need others to tell me what is right and wrong." Magus elaborated with another shrug and continuing to inspect his wand.

They passed the next couple of minutes in an unusual and awkward silence, until Paige looked at her watch and realised it was time for her meeting.

She got up to leave, but Magus halted her before she could step out of the office.

"Seriously Kid, forget about me and Dawn or what we are doing. You make the right decision for you and yours." He insisted firmly, an odd, inscrutable expression on his face. Having said his piece, the odd wizard now withdrew a miniature cauldron and several skewers that ended in fork tips.

"Thanks for the heads up." Paige gratefully told her mentor and left for her appointment with the senior Auror.

* * *

The offices of magical law enforcement were a far flung stretch from the department of magical accidents and catastrophes. For one thing Paige noticed that every witch and wizard seemed to be hard at work, whether it was on paperwork, processing members of the public or simply discussing work in low tones with other small teams of their colleagues.

This was what Paige had imagined her own office would be when she turned up and a small part of her was jealous for a minute. Then she remembered the small fondue pot Magus had been setting up in their office before she had left. _Maybe you can work and still have fun,_ she considered for the first time.

Rufus Scrimgeour glowered on his way past with two other tough looking wizards in tow, there was a familiar napkin screwed up in his bony clenched fist.

"Ms Calamisi, over here!" A deep voice said and she turned to find Kingsley standing outside his office having just bid farewell to a rather grizzled member of the public it seemed. The visitor stumped away on a wooden leg, his magical eye whizzing this way and that, ever alert in a state of constant vigilance.

"Good morning, Mr Shacklebolt." She brightly greeted him and he waved her past him inside.

The office was very much like Kingsley himself; all business it would seem. Photos were spread across the walls, not of family but of fugitives. Most prominently the dirty dishevelled face of notorious still escaped as-far-as-anyone-knew mass murderer; Sirius Black.

"Please, just call me Kingsley, we are all colleagues and friends here." He assured her pleasantly.

"Paige then, please." She reciprocated in polite insistence and took the seat he offered her. Kingsley closed his door and muttered a _muffliato_ to keep their conversation private.

Kingsley closed the folder in front of him and set his quill down on top of it, he took his time studying Paige.

"On the books here Paige, I'm taking your statement about what happened on Tuesday." He begun slowly.

"Off the books however, I know what happened and I think you do too."

"Those Death Eaters were there to kill that guy Kakaroff." Paige quietly guessed.

"Well deduced. I am in no doubt of your mental acumens." Kingsley softly agreed.

"But this is a narrative that the minister of magic refuses to accept and so we need to collaborate a story that will not scupper your blossoming career here." He continued.

"The truth is something jealously guarded at the moment, Paige. Rejected by some and tarnished by others for their own means, but one thing is inevitable." Shacklebolt went on at barely a low whisper.

"There is a war coming isn't there, Kingsley?" Paige nervously headed him off.

"Indeed, young lady. A terrible fight and oppression the likes of which haven't been seen in nearly 16 years." He ominously agreed.

"And so the Order must form again." Kingsley finished grimly.

"The Order of the Phoenix, right?" Paige guessed again and once more Kingsley looked impressed.

"You are well informed, Paige. I would ask your source?" He enquired, his tone however somewhat more guarded.

"Magus. He told me you would look to recruit me." Paige decided honesty was the best policy against the formidable wizard.

Kingsley looked slightly troubled by this revelation and started scratching at the hem of his robe nervously, if Paige hadn't spent so much time with her mentor she wouldn't have known it as a tactic to keep a hand close to ones wand.

"You would offer me a place, but not him or Dawn?" Paige was curious and wanted a better answer.

Kingsley looked increasingly uncomfortable, but hid it well and tried his best to explain.

"Your mentor Magus is a unique case; a wildcard, he could be very valuable as an ally or rather dangerous."

"Dangerous?!" Paige snorted in disbelief before remembering she was at her adult job being vetted for a position in a secret organisation and had to be mature. Sure her mentor was no fluffy kitten but when she thought of the venom in which he battled the Death Eaters with, there was no chance he was on their side.

"Magus is considered friendly to the order and has in fact pulled a few of our operatives out of various scrapes over the past few months. The truth of the matter is that he flat out declined membership when he was approached about it last month." Kingsley admitted sounding somewhat puzzled by the whole matter himself.

"He refused to join?!" Paige voiced back in confusion. Magus had made it sound earlier as though he had never been asked.

"As for Dawn Dennison, there are some questions as to where her allegiances lie." Kingsley delicately phrased it, but had given her a large hint.

"But Dawn is the most sweetest, loveliest, somewhat protective.."

"Person that you have known for about a week?" Shacklebolt finished for her sharply and Paige couldn't deny the claim. The way he said it implied that they knew several dark things about Dawn's past that Paige did not..

"I suppose." Paige conceded, trying not to sound like a petulant child. To be fair she didn't know much surrounding the past of either of her new friends.

"Her prior affiliations give some in the Order doubts about her and by extension her extremely loyal friend, Magus." Shacklebolt finished grimly, his tone left no room for argument on the matter.

* * *

Her meeting with Kingsley finished soon after that with him imparting her with a final ultimatum.

"I don't expect an answer now, but think about my offer of place. The Order could always use more bright young ministry workers who are willing to accept Voldemort's return."

Paige was glad he hadn't pressured her for an answer then, she honestly wasn't sure what to say in answer. She decided that she would discuss the matter with her parents and get their take on things.

On returning to the office she saw that Magus had indeed fired up a little cauldron of fondue and was taking turns with Dawn dunking little hunks of bread into the melted cheese.

Taking turns was perhaps putting it generously; more so it appeared the two would fence with their elongated dunking forks to get the largest pieces of bread and to successfully submerge them in the delicious smelling solution. Watching the two sword fight in friendly competition, Paige couldn't help wonder what the two were hiding to not be joined up on the good guys crack team.

Now nursing two savage little puncture wounds in the back of his hand from a particularly vigorous battle with Dawn, Magus produced a third fork for his intern.

Paige appreciated that neither of them pestered her for details about her meeting with Shacklebolt and instead it was largely idle chatter and gossip that they shared around the fondue cauldron like a trio of cheese worshipping vultures.

There was an open and cheese stained copy of the Prophet on her desk, awaiting her turn to read it as was the process in the office. She had learnt within the week that the most senior officers read the paper first and it slowly got passed down the ranks throughout the day until she got to read the paper, which was usually thoroughly thumbed through, food stained and with the switching crossword filled out. Today she noticed some slandering article about Dumbledore taking up the front page and only a brief mention of 'the altercation' that her department had been involved in. There was no mention of Karkaroff or death eaters, she assumed Fudge had ensured that was the case.

"I was just telling Dawny here about your mate Tim." Magus pulled Paige into their conversation.

"Who?" Paige asked in puzzlement, she had met so many new wizards in the past week she struggled to remember all their names.

"The tall bloke from Law Enforcement who had the misfortune of having his nose straightened out by you the other day?" He reminded her.

"Oh yeah." Paige remembered now before coming back to the description he had used.

"Wait, what do you mean misfortune?" She started at him hotly.

"Well he does have a bit of a kink in his schnoz now." Dawn delicately told her.

"It could point round corners." Magus amended her statement and got another stab in the hand for his trouble.

"It's honestly not that bad, he doesn't seem to mind." Dawn hurried to reassure her.

"It was the first nose I had tried to fix and I was in a hurry." Paige confessed guiltily.

"Don't sweat it, I think Tiny Tim must like you some see, he isn't complaining. To be honest he was a little to ordinary looking before; the nose gives him some character." Magus contemplated.

"Besides, for guys it is sort of a rite of passage having your nose broken at some point. He'll get some tough guy credit from the incident, maybe just don't let on how it happened exactly." He finished, rubbing his own slightly misshapen nose.

The now familiar Tequila ringtone interrupted any unlikely chance of further discussion on the matter.

Her ridiculous mentor sprung to his feet dancing around in an exaggerated childish manner, letting the tone run through to its completion. Swiping a sheet of paper from the desk he wiped the messy stubble around his mouth of any stray cheese and bread crumbs. As he dumped the sheet back on the table, Paige noticed that it was a very important looking document and had his name at the top. She only caught a glance of the terms 'Disciplinary Action' 'Official Warning' and 'Unwizarding Conduct' before it continued to flutter finally coming to a rest in his rubbish bin.

"Orange job, lets boogie." Magus joked exiting the cubicle with a sharp two step.

Paige noticed his limp was barely present anymore as the goofy man lead the way to the dispatch desk.

"Mikayla, good morning. How is Satan?" He enthusiastically asked the skinny gothic girl who was sitting alone at the table.

"He says hi." The girl replied in a deapan manner, her wide eyes seemed to bore into Paige and stare right into her soul. Creepy….

"Broom accident huh? Much left?" Magus read off the card she had passed him.

"Enough for a call to us evidently." The Tracer replied in her same flat tone.

"Access sounds to be difficult, side of a cliff. It looks like you might be flying in." Mikayla continued sombrely.

Magus paled slightly at the words and he cursed under his breath, his entire demeanour changed with the news.

"Crapsticks. I was really keen on not dying today." He groaned.

"I'm not bothered really either way." Mikayla soulfully contemplated the idea.

"Flying? As in on brooms?" Paige gulped, she had definitely not been on the house Quidditch team.

"Unless you got wings tucked down the back of those robes." Her mentor quipped leading the way towards the fire.

"And I know you don't.." He reminded her with a conspiratorial look, causing her to gasp at his audacity.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N-** Another chapter and a bit more fun. If you feel like reviewing let me know which characters you'd like to hear more about? Also I mentioned a few chapters back how Magus was almost expelled from Hogwarts; any guesses as to why? The real reason might surprise you ;)

Cheers.

 _ **-Greysouth.**_

* * *

"When will these muppets learn; don't go out flying if you suck at it and the weather is rubbish." Magus sighed as they apparated onto the windswept country side, a large set of grey coastal cliffs loomed in the distance.

They had appeared right in the middle of a full blown storm it would seem.

Paige couldn't help but agree with him; at this seaside part of the country the wind howled and buffeted at her robes, tearing at the thick oilskin coats they had donned. The battered old Cleansweep 7 from the Preparation room tugged insistently in her hands, as if she were to let it go that it would sail away on its own. Given the wind speed this was not an unlikely circumstance.

Nearby a witch about Paige's age waved at the pair to get their attention from the sandstorm of a beach.

"Yeah yeah, we see you, numpty. You are the only other person dumb enough to be outside on a day like this." Her mentor grumbled moodily as they leaned into the wind and walked over to see her.

The windswept young woman was rugged up for the cold and rain, her pale hands wrung a battered looking broomstick of her own. Her short curly blonde hair was plastered to her forehead from the rain and she was as pale as the white crested waves behind them.

They had to shout to be heard over the torrential downpour and gusting winds.

"What's the deal here?" Magus snapped in a loud growl.

"Me and Oli were trying to make it to Devon, but we were blown off course." The distraught witch explained, she looked vaguely familiar to Paige.

"Way off course.." Magus muttered again, unheard by the wind.

"I said the weather was too rough, but Oli is a professional Quidditch player and he said we'd be fine." The witch continued in a rapid regretful tone.

"We decided to try land, but Oli got caught by a huge breeze and was smashed into those cliffs." The witness told them with a point towards the nearest line of eighty foot high cliffs.

"Can you be more specific on the where?" Paige interjected, eyeing the towering landscape.

"Somewhere near the top?" The witch added in a small unhelpful voice, she nervously pawed at the damp sand with the toe of her shoe.

"Brilliant." Paige thanked her with no enthusiasm that was matched by her mentor.

He wasn't finished with her yet though, getting close up in the woman's face he issued some firm orders.

"Right, we're going up. Stay here. No matter what, don't get back on that bloody broom. You savvy?"

The witch nodded feebly in response and they squelched away.

"You done much flying?" Magus asked Paige in a loud voice as they got closer to the cliffs. Behind them the sea whipped and roared, pelting them with foam and salty spray with each breaking wave.

"Not really. I never enjoyed it that much." She confessed eying the cliffs nervously and Magus grimly nodded.

"I'm with ya on that one, Rookie. I was a beater for the Huffs for two seasons, but not a fan of the flying part." He admitted with a dark nostalgic expression, before snapping out of it.

"Okay here is the plan, we'll fly diagonal to the wind along the beach, up past the cliff and then back along it. Keep ten metres from me at least and twenty from the cliffs, I don't want two patients here." Magus sharply detailed the plan, as they mounted their brooms. "You see this clown, try mark the site nearby, then we will land and plan for an extrication."

"Gotcha." Paige acknowledged, sounding bolder then she felt. Cold water had already seeped down her back and soaked into her clothes. She fought a shiver and tapped her wand to her glasses.

 _"_ _Impervio"_

White knuckled, she held the wand flush against her broomstick and followed her mentors example and kicked off the ground.

It was like getting pushed by a giant hand the instant her feet left the soft sand. The two brooms careened wildly off towards the bare cliffs with alarming speed.

"Diagonal!" Magus yelled at her soundlessly in reminder over the high speed winds. Paige had of course tried to turn and fly straight back against the gale. Correcting her direction as he suggested, she brought her broom to heel with his and the pair rocketed along the cliffs. Grey and white rock zoomed by at a blur and she blinked rapidly trying to pick up anything else on their face. The speed and lack of control reminded Paige exactly why she had not enjoyed flying. Terror held her fast to the broom alone and she flew without seeing, fighting the wind the whole time just to stay away from the rock.

* * *

The pair landed and did a second flyby after walking back to the start of the cliffs. The weather was against them and not getting any better, as they valiantly struggled onwards with their search. It was on their third run that Paige thought she saw something; a flash of something yellow about 15 metres from the top. Taking aim she blasted out a flare of red sparks at the spot. The collection of sparks seemed to adhere to the cliff and dance merrily as the two Reversers dropped away to land.

They walked to underneath the spot and squinted in vain trying to spot the crashed rider. Paige's sparks were just visible in the poor conditions, but Paige was unconfident as to how close she had landed them to the patient.

"We'll do another run and see how close we can get, maybe enough to grab him or at least confirm our marker." Magus decided as their next course of action, they had been there almost an hour and were both beyond exhausted.

"Stay frosty." He reminded her, his usual token to stay alert. This had literal meaning at the moment though, Paige was fairly sure that she couldn't feel her butt anymore and her hands were numb and clumsy.

They took another run at the cliffs, Magus in the lead and Paige tailing close behind him.

Coming up on Paige's sparks they both saw the flash of yellow again and swooped in perilously close. It was a yellow plastic raincoat and it luckily still had someone in it. The sparks were close; only five metres off and Paige quickly sent a second lot out to correct her placement.

Taking one hand off the broom proved a mistake though as it lurched in her single handed grip, careening towards the expanse of roughhewn cliffs. It all happened too quickly for Paige to readjust or do anything, but desperately clutch to the stick once more.

That was all she had time to do before her broomstick crashed into the cliff with a splintering of wood and a horrible crunch.

* * *

 _Falling..._

A terrible pain in her right upper leg and falling; that was all Paige could comprehend in her addled state.

Dark curtains had ushered in around the edge of her vision and a distant corner of her mind figured that she must have hit her head hard in the collision with the rock wall. The usually calculating mind was overwhelmed by the circumstance and failed to work in light of her descent into the breezy soaking abyss. In apocalyptic horror she watched her wand tumbling below her with the remains of her shattered broomstick; her only hopes of salvation.

The ragged rocks at the base of the cliff seemed to leap up at her hungrily, distantly the sea and storm roared their approval.

Paige closed her eyes, unwilling to watch the end.

A painful jolt and a sudden slowing of the fall.

Looking up in confusion, Paige realised the cause for her sudden change.

Magus hung sideways on his broom, with the stick wedged in the crook of his armpit, having just manged to snatch the sleeve of her coat with the other hand as she sailed away from him. His face was creased in fierce determination and his own broom seemed equally determined to shatter them both against the cliff. As Paige watched, she saw that he was fully leaned into the wind, almost horizontal, letting that force keep him on the broom. Every time the wind gusted them at the cliff, he would flex his legs and kick off it, flailing away like he was running at the same time. The ground rushed up at the pair alarmingly fast and the scream died in Paige's throat.

Magus was also screaming in a slightly more masculine fashion, but his abject terror was plain. Paige saw his grip on the sleeve falter and slip from his desperate grasp, having only slowed her momentum momentarily . His eyes widened in shock and his face fell in dire sadness before being dragged away back into the storm by the wind.

The terrifying sensation of falling began again, overtaking all other feeling or thought. The crash came much sooner than expected, but no less sudden or formidable in its intensity. Paige gasped in agony as her right leg exploded with a splintering pain, the wind dashed from her lungs.

There was no concept of time or place, but Paige's mind somehow restarted and concluded she must be on the ground once more. _That part was always pretty inevitable_ , it snidely reminded her.

Roughly her body was shaken and her eyes sprung open to see her concerned mentor.

"Hey." She whispered weakly and it made a slight grin crack his worried face.

"Damn, Kid! Don't scare me like that!" Magus yelled at her, the smile continuing to grow to its usual wide teasing smirk.

"I'm not allowed to kill any more staff." He reminded her morbidly.

Paige tried to sit up, her whole body complaining at the mere idea.

She groaned weakly.

"Hold up. Let me fix your leg before you try move. It isn't supposed to face that way." Magus stopped her and began to poke and prod with his wand.

"I lost my wand.." She stammered in devastation.

"Don't fret, new wands can be bought. New interns; not so much." He reassured her and with a gruesome crunch her leg flared with incredible warmth before starting to ease.

Paige sat up this time a good deal slower, the pain was less but her leg still throbbed.

"Was it really that bad?" She wanted to know, seeing the still concerned expression on his face.

"Your leg was pretty nasty." Magus conceded tight-lipped and looking away, she noticed the gash on his face had ripped open several stitches and was bleeding freely again.

"Now what do we do?" Paige softly asked him, sheltered from the driving rain by his crouched form.

"There is no **we**." He corrected her sharply.

" **You** stay here, **you** smashed your leg up good and need to rest it after the healing."

"You are not flying back up there?" She challenged him accusingly.

"Na fuck that. Way too windy. **I'm** going to abseil down from the top and grab that idiot off the rocks." He decided his jaw set square.

"Seriously?" Paige checked to make sure she had heard him right.

"Sure, what's the worst that could happen? Back in a jiffy." He winked roguishly, trying to act like his usual self. Paige remained unconvinced.

* * *

With a crack he was gone and Paige slowly dragged herself to a seated and rested her back against a nearby boulder. She was so saturated at this point that the rain couldn't possibly bother her more, she was soaked to the skin. The cold wind bit at her, but it wasn't enough to make it through the warm adrenaline surge that still blanketed her.

Looking around she realised just how lucky she had been, landing on the soft damp sand. A few meters in either direction would have meant landing on unforgiving rocks or off the side of the beach shelf and into the raging sea. She understood now that the small move away from the rocks had probably been the extent of which her mentor had been able to help.

The downpour was beginning to ease now and through the slight haze that remained, Paige could see faint movement on the cliffs above.

Many minutes that felt like hours later another crack issued.

Magus had returned looking completely wiped out, covered in scratches and blood. It was no wonder he looked so tired either the young man who he had rescued was quite burly and heavy set in physique.

As rough as he might be, Magus still didn't look half as bad off as the other guy though.

He was young wizard, with eyes wide open and aghast in an expression of uncomprehending shock. Paige's eyes caught on the large swollen bruise that took up most of the ghostly pale, young man's head and the sharp protrusion of one of his elbows.

The chest rose unevenly.

His sallow face was somewhat familiar and it wasn't until the crying witch from earlier appeared sobbing his name did Paige realise that she knew this man.

"Oh Oliver.." She exhaled in despair. At the broken picture of a broken, but unmistakable Oliver Wood. He always had been rather bold on a broom.

"Let's get out of the rain." Magus startled everyone except the unconscious by suggesting loudly. With a sharp crack they all disaparated one last time.

Instantly they were back in the preparation room, soaking the floor with a puddle of cold muddy water intermingled with blood.

Paige felt as useless as tits on a bull, watching her mentor work on the young man, until he found Oliver's wand and passed it to her. While not her own wand, the cold foreign stick did as she bade it, to aid its master. She felt clumsy with cold and fatigue, but reckoned that her mentor must have felt equally bad and together they straightened fractured bones, reduced swelling and placed their injured charge onto a conjured stretcher.

"Come along." Paige wearily instructed the other young witch, who she still didn't recognise and they made their way up the all too familiar passage to St Mungos.

Paige handed this patient over to the receiving Leonie, just as her mentor had taught her to do and despite their mutually fatigued state, he still spared her a nod of approval for her efforts.

"He'll make a full recovery.." Paige heard Leone assuring the distressed young woman who was still clutching one of Wood's large hands.

"I hope so... Quidditch is his life!" The friend murmmured morosely.

Reluctantly, Paige had left the wand with Oliver's friend and now felt naked and unprotected walking back down the ramp with her mentor.

"Pays to have a spare wand." Magus only commented on her downcast expression as they returned to the preparation room.

* * *

A hot shower and dry clothes seemed like a literal blessing after the hours in the rain, it was almost an hour later that they both re-emerged from the hot water and returned to the office looking like drowned rats. Paige limped slightly now like her mentor, while not painful, her leg felt stiff and fragile, as if it was still not quite mended yet. Magus assured her that the sensation would pass in time.

"You almost died today didn't you?" Mikayla asked Paige as she passed in an almost wistful tone.

"Maybe next time." Paige muttered back grumpily at the Tracer who still looked as warm and as dry, with perfect hair as when they had left.

Her terrible mood was somewhat thawed on the return to their cubicle to see that Dawn hadn't packed away the little fondue set and that there was still slowly boiling cheese on offer.

While she went to indulge her dairy needs, Magus simply withdrew his hammock and collapsed into it without another word.

Thankfully they didn't have another callout all day and Paige woke up herself at three in the afternoon to leave, with cheese in her hair where she had dozed off on her desk.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

* * *

Saturday marked a later start for the department and also the first time Paige could remember not having a wand at hand. She went through her morning routine slowly and manually like a muggle. Her slow start was interrupted by the post, bringing a reply from Lawrence who wanted to confirm details for attending the Halloween party at the ministry that was happening that evening.

She hastily replied and was just putting her bag together for the day when there was a curt knock on her door.

Puzzled, Paige approached the threshold, feeling acutely vulnerable now without a wand to call on, she contemplated simply pretending to not be home.

Opening the door, cautiously given her recent encounters, Paige was startled to see her mentor leaned causally against the doorframe waiting on her. There were heavy bags under his eyes and his spiky hair seemed more dishevelled than usual.

"What are you doing here Magus?" She cried in surprise. He was always late getting into the office, for him to be awake this early was unheard of as far as she knew.

"I was downstairs grabbing a beer or two." He started casually but she cut him off.

"Wait! How do you know where I live?" Paige demanded suddenly, clutching at where her wand would usually be out of habit.

"Lucky guess?" Her mentor replied with a smirk on his lightly lopsided face.

"Bullshit!" She snorted disbelievingly.

"Hey I'm your mentor, I have to know these things." He shrugged indifferently, like it was just part of the job.

"Let's go back to the what are you doing here part then." Paige suspiciously asked again.

"Came to help you get a new wand, you aren't much use to me without one today. I figured we'd go before work and get you one." Magus explained patiently, like he was talking to a child, all the while his eyes darting down the hallway.

Conspiratorially, he gestured for her to lean closer so he could whisper in her ear.

"Word on the street is that getting a wand might become exceptionally harder in the not too distant future." He hissed secretively and tapped his nose knowingly. Paige shuddered at his hot breath cascading on her neck as he whispered and the sickly sweet scent of liquor it carried.

Paige had been meaning to go and order one that day by post anyway, but now her mentor seemed to think going in person was a better idea. Besides waiting for delivery could be several more wandless days to endure, in which as her mentor Magus pointed out, she wouldn't be much use at work.

So conceding to his sometimes better judgement and mysterious street knowledge, she snatched her purse from the table and went outside to meet him.

* * *

Magus apparated them to the Leaky Cauldron from the top of her stairs. The dingy bar was about the same as she remembered it, as she walked through the downtrodden establishment with Magus, who clearly had spent a fair bit of time there.

Tom the barman greeted Magus with a light scowl, but grudgingly started pouring a well-worn flagon of mead for the young man. The flagon appeared to have had his name scratched in it with something sharp. Magus as a surprise to everyone present waved him off.

"Maybe later, Tom; just passing through at the moment." He explained dismissively.

"Maybe you can settle up your tab then too?" The grizzled bartender growled at his departing form. Magus seemed not to hear him or simply ignored him.

As they passed, several other customers exchanged greetings and insults with Magus.

"Who'sh the bird? You lost the other one already, McIntyre?" One scruffy drunk slurred at him, eyeing Paige with undue interest.

"Dawn's at home today Mickey, this is Paige my new intern. We got some stuff to grab for work ourselves actually." Magus clipped back in testy reply.

As they passed the drunk called Mickey, Magus's wand swished out from his side with a crack and clipped the man's sneakily outstretching hand that had almost reached Paige.

"Keep those hands to yourself Mickey, or I'll snap them off remember?" He warned the drunk and chambered his wand again at his side with another neat circular swing.

 _Magus is extra grumpy this morning it would seem_ , Paige thought to herself.

"Sorry Mac, keep forgetting. Short memory, ya know?" The drunk hurriedly apologised, clutching his stinging wrist. He had grey, waist length hair and an equally long filthy beard, his half-starved frame seemed to shrink from the blow.

Paige fast stepped it to keep up with her mentor as he pushed outside to enter the Diagon Alley. She stayed close to him this time, having learned another lesson.

"Don't mind Mickey, he is harmless. Mostly." Magus assured Paige as he surreptitiously tapped the bricks with his stout wand and they entered the wizarding street. As it was a Saturday, the streets were thrumming with activity, the coming and going of witches and wizards of all ages.

The usually social McIntyre hastily and rudely made his way through the crowds with Paige close beside him until the finally entered Ollivander's. It appeared the aging wizard had just turned the sign around and was setting up for the day.

"Mr McIntyre, Cedar, dragon heartstring; 14 inches and rigid. Extremely sturdy, yet temperamental." He slowly greeted the wizard in a voice dulled with age.

"That's me. Oh wait you were talking about my wand again?" Magus joked deadpan with a wink to Paige and the old wandmaker shook his head disapprovingly, Paige poked out her tongue in disgust.

"That joke is less funny every time you make it." The elderly man wheezed.

"Please don't tell me you have broken another one?" He further begged in exasperation.

"Mr Ollivander please! I've been taking real great care of this one." Magus insisted in apparent grave offence.

"So you haven't been hitting other people with this wand then?" The shrewd craftsman demanded.

"Of course not!" Magus denied, hiding the battered wand further behind his body.

"Well not often." He amended under the doubtful gaze of the wandmaker.

"But what have you done to that wand?!" Ollivander exclaimed, moving with an uncanny speed to snatch the wand Magus had tried to conceal. Paige noticed though he took it from his grasp, the wand still didn't leave her mentors reach. A short strip of dragonhide cord ran from the back of the thick wand and effectively tethered it to his forearm.

Paige had never seen such an odd wand fixture and was perplexed not to have noticed it before, it was perhaps a new feature he had added.

Magus shrugged the loop off his wrist where it had anchored the wand.

"I made a lanyard after our scrape the other day, might stop me losing the bloody thing if I drop it or am disarmed." He briskly explained. Paige had to admit that made sense and she was surprised that no one else had thought to do the same.

The wand maker studied the small hole in the base in amazement as if it was sacrilege to have made a hole in ones wand.

"How did you make this hole?" He asked at last in barely concealed anger.

"Muggle power drill." Magus admitted lightly, retaking his wand and slipping the loop over his wrist once more.

"You are a most unusual wizard, Mr McIntyre. I hadn't made weapon-like wands such as yours for centuries until you came along." Ollivander muttered in what sounded a lot like disapproval.

His eyes now caught on the nervous looking Paige who had been left out of the exchange.

"Ah young Ms Calamisi, it has been a long time. Elm, 15 inches with a bit of spring to it and the tail of a particularly large unicorn if I recall correctly." He recounted with loving detail.

"That is right, Sir." Paige smiled warmly, although feeling a little guilty because she had lost the wand in question.

"And it has served you well my dear? I have heard plenty about your achievements at Hogwarts, but what do you do with it now?" The old man enquired in an odd manner as if it was the wand that had a profession now, not the girl.

"It has Sir, I work with Magus in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes as a Junior Reverser." She informed him almost proudly.

Ollivander seemed somewhat perturbed by this and he cast a disapproving eye over her mentor once more.

"Well I hope this brigand is minding his manners and looking out for your wellbeing."

"The second surely, the first not so much." Magus assured him rudely cutting off Paige from answering.

"The Kid here lost her wand on a job and we need a new one right away." Magus cut to the chase.

"Please!" Paige added imploringly at the doubtful look that was being cast their way.

"Of course." Ollivander slowly said, as if they were painful words for him to spit out.

"Really?" Paige enquired, sincerely surprised that the man would help her and the rude wizard she had arrived with.

"As much as I may disapprove of your Irish friend here, I also owe him indefinitely for services rendered in the past." The old wandmaker begrudgingly mumbled.

The mentor in question, sat on the corner of the table and whistled while he cleaned under his fingernails with his well-worn wand.

"I am pretty awesome." He quietly and immodestly agreed to everyone's irritation.

Ollivander disappeared out back in frustration and returned with two long narrow boxes.

One was reverently passed across the table to Paige and the other callously slid across to Magus, as if it was a disdained object that the old wizard no longer wanted in his possession.

"It is the very last one I will make you, Mr McIntyre." Ollivander informed Magus with a cold weary expression, as if just to make the wand had taken something from him.

Paige swished her new wand experimentally, producing a happy shower of sparks.

"That should be every bit as good as your old one, my dear." The wandmaker assured Paige in a much warmer tone.

"Thank you so much." She gushed in appreciation.

"No trouble at all for you, I assure you. Just be careful out there please." He implored her with a sideways glance at her crass mentor.

Magus snatched up his own wand box, without inspecting the contents and stuffed it unceremoniously into his satchel with no more than a curt nod of thanks.

"You might want to disappear for a while, old man. I hear bad things rising that might end up crossing your path." He quietly warned Ollivander with a sombre expression and a rare seriousness.

"I have seen much darkness young man and I fear it as much as I do those who supposedly walk in the light. I will stay; for where else will young wizards get their wands?" Ollivander snapped back at him cryptically.

"I'll check in from time to time then." Magus eventually promised quietly and the old man nodded gratefully, the tension breaking from his face at the gesture. He adamantly waved away Paige dismissively as she tried to pay for her new wand.

"Be safe!" He cautioned the pair as they slowly departed the shop.

* * *

"Batty old coot." Magus muttered under his voice as soon as they stepped out into the cool morning air.

"Rude! He is a bit creepy, but he just gave us new wands, no ordering or waiting and free of charge too!" Paige defended the old man.

Magus shrugged indifferently and looked around the packed streets.

"Any other errands to run while we are out?" He wearily asked her, changing the subject before she decided to ask why the wandmaker was in his debt.

"Nope, I've got my costume all sorted for tonight." Paige smugly told him, fully aware that not knowing what it was would bug him.

"I'm not going to bite.." Magus informed her, pointedly not looking at her and wise to what she was doing.

Paige waited for the other shoe to drop as he pretended to look in the window of a nearby shop.

"Come on, tell me what you are going as?!" He whined, finally breaking in the silence.

Paige cracked a smirk at the needy tone and held her tongue.

"Is it a couples costume with whats-his-face?" He curiously bugged her, picking at her in an annoying manner.

"Lawrence. And no I don't know what he is planning to come as." Paige corrected him patiently, she too had been wondering what her boyfriend was going to come as.

"Whatever." Magus brushed off the superfluous information.

"What are you dressing up as for it?" Paige turned it back on him.

"Top secret; Dawn has sworn me into secrecy with the threat of terrible, terrible things.." He informed her in a shell-shocked voice, his eyes took on a momentarily hollow stare.

"Aww cute so you two are doing a couples costume?" Paige prodded for a reaction.

Magus appeared to have lost interest already though, he was distracted by a commotion down the street ahead of them.

"Stop, thief!" Someone yelled and one of the nearby shopkeepers ran out with his wand raised. He was quite old but he still fired off a couple of spells with a passion belying his age.

Through the crowd someone was roughly pushing people out of the way to escape.

A rough looking skinhead finally broke through the crowd and sprinted past the dismayed pair of Reversers. In one hand he clutched his wand and in the other a ripped satchel which jingled and scattered Galleons and Sickles as he ran.

With a shove the robber knocked hard into both the Reversers, almost knocking them from their feet.

"Rude!" Magus muttered disapprovingly and threw a hand out to stabilise his student, without warning he had deployed his wand with an angry flick of the wrist. The perpetrator had moved quickly out his immediate strike range though and he relaxed his chambered wand down once more.

"We should stop him!" Paige cried in disgust and indignation, her own wand out at the interruption too.

"Knock yourself out Kid." Magus encouraged her with waning interest as he picked up a discarded sickle and stuffed it in his jeans pocket.

" _Stupefy!"_ Paige yelled enthusiastically and fired a red jet of light after the fleeing thief.

A discount apothecary supplies table was the only thing thoroughly stupefied and it exploded in a shower of glass.

Swing and a miss..

Slightly put off, Paige tried again and this time a random trash can wore her misplaced wrath.

"Nice shooting, Tex." Magus quipped sarcastically.

"I'd like to see you do better!" Paige bit back downhearted as the thief ran out of what was clearly her range. He had escaped the crowds now and was gaining some distance.

Magus sighed theatrically and lifted his wand, bracing it off his other horizontal raised forearm. He poked his tongue out in concentration and closed one eye to aim.

"You have to give them lead to account for their movement." He whispered in tutorage, not looking up from his rapidly disappearing target.

" _Diffindo."_ He spoke as a bare bitter whisper.

A green light erupted from the end of his wand and rocketed off after the running robber. It was a long shot…

With a rending scream the spell caught the runner in the leg with a short spray of blood and the man stumbled to a painful collapse.

Magus gave a cocky wink that embodied all the things about him that Paige hated.

Raising his wand he blew away imaginary smoke coolly.

"That is how it is done, Rookie.." He told her and began to strut towards the ailing wizard, who was clutching his leg in agony.

Paige just despised him when he was right.

* * *

The crowd had cleared enough around them now for the villain to fire a hex back at the approaching pair. Magus quickly snatched a book off a nearby discount rack and held it in front of him to block the vicious looking spell.

"Yikes!" He commented at the smoking hole that it had created in the thick copy of 'Potions for Dummies'.

"Take the wand off him will ya, Kid, before he thinks up something creative to throw at us."

Paige copied the way her mentor had held his wand earlier and tried again.

" _Expelliarmus."_ She yelled this time.

It was much easier to hit a stationary target, especially one that was now closer and lying on the ground. So now it only took Paige three tries before she got a hit.

"Got there in the end didn't we?" Her mentor remarked in amusement.

Paige's retort died in her throat when they reached the injured thief for two reasons.

Firstly his left foot hung at a hideous angle a horrible open wound to his Achilles, it had only bled a small amount but was horrible and grotesque in appearance none-the-less. It appeared Magus had sliced the wizards Achilles tendon with his severing charm, a creative use for the spell no doubt.

Secondly, Paige recognised the petty thief.

"Wow! I got you good sucker, bet that stings!" Magus chuckled arrogantly at his own shooting.

Noel Nazarine tried his best to sneer through his grimace of pain, it lost a lot of its threatening impression. He usually made for quite the intimidating figure with his fully shaven head, prison muscles and the large number of terrifying, moving tattoos.

"Owww fucking law enforcement pricks!" The rough young wizard swore and thrashed on the ground in frustration without his wand.

"We're not magical law enforcement, genius." Paige groaned impatiently, she had never had much time for the on and off, dropkick boyfriend of her older sister.

"Just two passing people that like dropping dirtbags." Magus quipped before catching a vehemently head shaking from Paige.

"Okay, just one person who likes hurting dirtbags." He amended.

"Hey, you are that whore Maggie's prude sister." Noel exclaimed in disgusted realisation as he finally recognised one of the figures standing over him.

"I'm no prude and I don't have sister!" Magus replied coldly and yet mockingly, pretending that the comment was meant for him.

"Not you, dumbass. I'm referring to that bitch." The downed skinhead hissed in irritation and pain.

"Bold words for a man with his foot half hanging off." Magus noted disapprovingly giving the aforementioned foot a nudge with his own for good measure.

The wounded wizard bucked and swore in agony.

"Ah look here comes one of the boys from Law Enforcement now." Magus smugly noted and recognised Tiny Tim's awkward gait from a distance.

He was accompanied by the elderly shopkeeper and taking rapid, messy notes in a small battered notebook.

"Hey Paige, Magus. Nice shot back there, I was out picking up more quills and heard the commotion." He explained his timely appearance.

"How convenient, you sure you aren't following us?" Magus scrutinised the young wizard.

"Ignore him, he is paranoid in the mornings if he doesn't get his coffee." Paige hastily explained.

"Who told you that?" Magus suspiciously enquired.

"Can you arrest this no good thief already?" The elderly shopkeeper wheezed.

Tim who was already looking confounded, looked more flustered.

"I'll book him for you, Tiny Tim." Magus offered helpfully. Without waiting for a response he smashed Noel in the face with the damaged hardback book that had been used as a shield. The man's nose exploded in a gout of blood and he sunk back onto the cobbled footpath.

"Stupefy, bitch." Magus smarmily crowed a one-liner, throwing the bloody and burnt book down on the unresponsive felon and looked back up at the others with his trademark crooked smirk. This was clearly a young man who had watched too many action movies.

"That was excessive." Paige mumbled disapprovingly as she traced the Achilles back with her wand as best she could and realigned the foot under it.

"Fuck him! Who cares, guy was a waster anyway. Don't do the crime if you can't stand to be pummelled with books I always say." Magus defended his actions bitterly sarcastic and with a blithe shrug.

"I have heard him say that before." Tim muttered incredulously.

Paige looked at him sharply for support.

"These things happen when people resist arrest." Tim shrugged awkwardly and refused to meet her gaze as he rolled the still swearing Nazarine over and placed an enchanted pair of shackles on his wrists.

"Well they shouldn't." Paige snapped at the pair of them, maybe she didn't like Noel at all, but she thought he at least deserved fair treatment.

"Call it a crime deterrent then." Magus suggested, helping Tim stand the steadily blood dripping criminal back up onto unsteady feet.

"Fuck you!" Noel cursed back at him rudely, his tone nasally through his swelling nose.

"See? Consider him deterred." Magus gestured as if proving a point and roughly shoving the prisoner against Tiny Tim.

Paige simply shook her head in disgust at her mentor, who still had a sneered lip until Tim removed the unpleasant man with a pop of apparation.

* * *

Magus brusquely brushed aside the thanks from the shop owner who had been reunited with his wizarding cash and started to walk back to the Leaky Cauldron without waiting to see if Paige was following.

She bounded after her temperamental mentor and by the time she caught up to him at the bar he was half way through a pint of mead.

"Can we go now?" Paige pleaded, hearing nearby patrons recounting the near robbery that had just been foiled.

When he studiously ignored her, she sighed and reached for an old copy of the Quibbler on a nearby table. She flicked through idly until Magus finally broke the silence.

"Let me finish my pint and then we can go. I needed something extra this morning." He explained quietly in a tone so unlike his.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Paige asked slowly as his change in sorts finally seemed to catch her.

"Nope. Can you just let me brood mysteriously into my drink for a bit?" He requested mildly, taking another long swig of his drink. Several minutes passed and Magus finally stood up and slapped a couple of sickles down on the counter.

They donned their jackets once more in silence.

Magus didn't speak again until they had stepped out once more ready to apparate.

"It's an anniversary today of sorts, for something not so pleasant. It's got me in a bit of a bad mood ya know?" He finally informed her in an unreadable tone.

"I mighta got a bit carried away because of it." Magus reluctantly admitted with his same brooding expression.

His gaze suddenly flashed up a flutter of movement outside by one of the fountains.

"Donny, you little bastard!" He cursed under his breath and strode off towards the fountain in a huff.

"Where the hell have you been, duck?" He hollered at the water feature which was inhabited by several of the common water birds.

One duck in particular caught Paige's eye, tied to one of its legs were a small stack of letters. At their presence it turned stubby tail and tried to make for the other side of the pond.

"Get back here you ungrateful, bread-billed bitch!" Magus yelled at the retreating water fowl without any consideration to how crazy he must have seemed to bystanders. With the same oblivious nature, he dived head first into the fountain after the duck in question. A loud quacking erupted at his upsetting move and water splashed everywhere, Paige quickly stepped back to avoid the small tidal wave her mentor had created in the still pond.

"Gotcha!" Magus called triumphantly, holding aloft the laden unhappily protesting duck.

"Why does that duck have mail attached to it?" Paige asked more to herself than anyone else and not for the first time doubting her mentor's sanity.

"This little prick, is Donny; my messenger." Magus explained, dripping from head to toe and fighting the furious snapping beak to retrieve his saturated mail.

"You have a duck, not an owl? Go figure.." She rolled her eyes at the ridiculous man as he roughly threw the duck back in the pond, having relieved it of his letters as well as several feathers.

Donny the duck however did not immediately fly off, instead he seemed to float impatiently as if waiting on something from Magus.

"No!" He refused the duck angrily. Donny quacked back at him impatiently.

"Once again, you didn't bring the damn messages to me, so why should I pay you?" Magus argued with the water bird and looking like a complete nutter in the process. The duck quacked at him once again, impetuously.

"Fine, jerk. But next time; no delivery, no bread." Magus relented, reaching into a pocket of his ever present dragon hide vest he pulled out a few crusts of wholemeal.

Donny started quacking again loudly in protest.

"Because too much whitebread makes you fat, Featherbrain." McIntyre lectured the animal and carelessly tossed the bread to it.

Donny eagerly snapped up the bread, which it sucked down it's gullet in record time.

He then turned to quack insistently at Paige in turn.

"She's my new intern, leave her alone Donny. She hasn't got any bread." Magus growled gratingly.

"And if you fuck up the delivery one more time I'm taking you to the Chinese Restaurant behind my flat." He warned the duck, who squawked back ungratefully.

Donny gave several long quacks that sounded a lot like laughter to Paige.

"Yeah, well this time I mean it, Peking Duck." He shot back, but the fat duck was already paddling away indifferently.

"His names Donny?" Paige skeptically raised her eyebrows at her mentor as he perused through some soaked mail.

"Coupon, junk mail, make your wand 4 inches longer, yeah right…" Magus mumbled to himself as he sorted the mail, tossing large quantities in a nearby rubbish bin.

"Short for Donatello. What did you think it was short for?" He responded looking up from his long overdue post.

"Renew subscription for 'Witches Without Robes?" Paige loudly read out over his shoulder.

"Why did that get sent to me?" Magus loudly purported unconvincingly and made to conceal the rest of his mail.

Paige gave her best disgusted and disapproving look while Magus tried for innocent and failed abysmally. As soon as Paige looked away, he swiftly lifted the subscription reminder back up, folded a sickle inside the paper and tapped it with his wand. The newly formed paperplane zoomed away merrily under its own accord, to renew his sleazy subscription.

"If you wanted your porno mag subscriptions to arrive on time, why don't you just own an owl?" Paige wearily enquired, as she waited for him to finish.

"Owls don't like me." Magus muttered darkly as he tried to dry a ministry stamped letter with his wand. It ended up catching fire instead and he promptly dropped the envelope and was forced to stomp out the flames.

Paige was curious to know more, but didn't want to press her mentor who had become sullen once more as his mail ran out. He tossed the final sodden letter and withdrew his wand in resignation.

"I guess we better start the day." He reluctantly decided.

 _Finally!_ A little voice in Paige's head cried in relief.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N-** I've broke this chapter up because it was getting too large, brings us to the start of the party that we have all waited for. Next one shouldn't be too far away because of it..

Cheers.

 _ **-Grey.**_

* * *

The office was near empty when they arrived back, as Magus explained to Paige, most of the ministry took a shorter day on Saturday and with the Halloween party that night, many did not even bother to turn up at all. Which made it all the more surprising to her that her own lazy mentor would have chosen to attend work either. The reason for this soon became apparent.

It appeared that Magus used the annual opportunity of the empty office to go around settling some personal vendettas in his own unique style.

As soon as they had returned he had quickly withdrawn a large sack from their enchanted filing cabinet, it was ominously heaving with contents and made Paige apprehensive just looking at it. The malicious grin that her mentor wore was also of little reassurance, it had yet to be ever followed by some action kind or safe.

Paige followed after him like an anxious lost puppy and was forced to turn away when he got to work vandalising and pranking the other departments. She steadfastly refused to aid and abet the various crimes he perpetrated, but to her credit managed to curve them away from permanently disfiguring in there nature. Mostly.

A certain desk over in the magical law enforcement office was made to grow an entire covering of thick red shaggy hair, which was suspiciously curly. The letter 'g' was also carefully disappeared from the name plate on the same desk. Paige suspected the angry, bald young wizard Angus would not be pleased to find these alterations.

A second desk there was magically enlarged so that its already large occupant would seem like a child when sitting at it. Tim was yet to notice, as he was still processing his new prisoner over in the lock up area of the department.

Rubbish bins all throughout magical transport were charmed to reverse directions and throw waste instead. In a rather complicated piece of magic, Magus enchanted the floor to adhere to shoes that walked on it. Paige would have lost her favourite pair of trainers if she hadn't copied her mischievous mentor and removed them before stepping foot across the room.

Drawers in the Auror offices were enchanted to release bloodcurdling screams when opened. Given the average level of paranoia and jumpiness within this department it seemed like quite a cruel and ill-advised practical joke to Paige.

A large mural in the magical creatures liaison office was altered to show a rather lude act occurring with a bowtruckle. While disgusted by his terrifyingly graphic drawing, Paige reluctantly couldn't help but admire his artistic ability with a wand.

The men's toilets in the Obliviator office were all either glued shut or else fitted with a regurgitating charm, which was bound to make for an interesting Monday morning.

Finally the Minister of Magic's chair and desk had a leg on each shortened a few centimetres, just enough that they would now always wobble. It seemed a poor prank for the security he had to overcome to access the office, so Magus also left a last minute engorgement charm waiting in the spare lime green bowler hat.

Paige left him to it in despair, after he had consistently failed to listen to her insistence to stop while he was busy transfiguring a phallic shape to protrude from the seat of a certain head of department's chair.

On returning to her own office Paige found an owl of her own waiting for her. Curious, she took the envelope and read the hastily scrawled note in familiar handwriting,

* * *

 _My Lady P._ It started in his usual address.

 _It is with much regret that I must say that I will be unable to attend the Ministry Halloween party with you tonight._

Paige felt her heart sink at that oddly formal sentence, but little did she anticipate things got worse as she read on.

 _Luana and I have been invited to a banquet at the Spanish Ministers house, can you believe that!? It is looking to be an excellent networking opportunity for us so I simply had to accept, you understand I am sure._

 _Again I'm terribly sorry and will tell you all about it when I'm due back next month._

 _Love._

 _Your Lawrence._

* * *

Paige finished the letter with her eyes stinging and crumpled the parchment in her fist.

She couldn't help but notice that this Luana had once again come up from Lawrence, the name itself conjured visions of beauty and long periods spend in dark libraries, just the pair of them.

She needed to talk to someone about it and decided to set off to find Dawn.

It oddly occurred to Paige that she had never actually visited Dawn's desk before, they always just seemed to hang out on the Reversals side. Walking along the empty row of desks she also remembered that she had already gone this way with her mentor earlier on his misguided mission of misdeeds. Dawn had not been there at that time either.

Wandering the near empty office, she finally found her mentor again; he was finishing up his latest work of transfiguring a trough to rest on one side of the Tracer desk. She was certain that this would get a furious reaction from one of the Tracers at least.

"Where's Dawn today?" Paige asked him as he stepped back to admire his handiwork.

"She has a long preparation time on her costume so she's doing that." He explained, allowing his wand to swing on its chord before it magically snapped back up and lashed itself to the underside of his wrist.

"I should probably get going too actually, my hair is going to take a while.." Magus contemplated distractedly.

"Was there much point even coming in today?" Paige lamented at the frustrating waste of time that had been the entire day.

"No probably not, but we cash a pay check and I got to cover Angus's desk in pubes." Magus pointed out, ever the optimist.

"Well I'm going home too then!" Paige decided in a huff, she was ready for the day to be over and was seriously reconsidering attending the party alone tonight.

"Whatever, we'll come pick you up at 5 okay?" Her mentor called after her as she moodily left.

* * *

When she got home Paige didn't know what to do with herself.

She sat with her back pressed against the door and simply cried for a few minutes at the hopeless abandonment she felt. Soon she found herself just lying in her bed for a few hours, dozing fitfully before determinedly getting up to pace restlessly. Finally she decided to keep busy by cleaning her meager flat from top to bottom, it provided a distraction at least and in this time she debated whether to still go the party that night.

5 O'clock snuck up on her and rolled round before she had realised or was ready.

A resounding knock on the door pulled her from her internal conflict.

Paige reluctantly opened the door, stuffing her disappointing letter back into her pocket as she did so. Somehow it hadn't left her person over the whole day and had been reread about a hundred times for clues. The pages wore heavy marks from her fingers and from her tears.

"Happy Halloween!" Dawn enthusiastically cried from the hallway, she was almost unrecognisable in what looked very much like a school uniform with her shirt tied up and long white socks. Her hair was extended and down in two long blonde pigtails; the unmistakeable trademarked look of an early 90's Britney Spears.

She was noisily chewing gum and had a prop microphone tucked into the waist of her short school uniform skirt.

"Where's your costume?" The man beside Dawn asked in confusion.

Paige was too startled by his appearance to answer right away. It looked like a completely different man than the one she had seen at work hours ago.

Magus looked to be the result of some horrible hex gone awry, because his usually straight, albeit messy hair was now glaringly bright blonde and in short Gerry curls. His eyes were covered by oversized purple lensed sunglasses and he looked strangely baby faced since he was clean shaven for once. His right ear appeared to be pierced with a shiny stud in it and gaudy silver chains hung around his neck with the glittering gold letters 'JT' swinging at the end. Any handsomeness that may have been generated by the tight white t-shirt on his figure was immediately destroyed by the bedazzled red vinyl jacket her wore over top. If Paige was not mistaken the tight pants he wore were of black faux leather. All in all, it made for a terrifyingly accurate Justin Timberlake, NYSNC era costume.

"Eaggh." Was all she could manage to grunt out in confusion and disgust at his appearance. Americans had an odd fashion taste, especially among their pop stars.

"I know! I think the hair suits me, I might keep it like this from now on?" Magus wildly misinterpreted her response, he gave a happy little dancing twirl on the spot.

His pants were definitely faux leather and extremely tight it would seem.

"We will no longer be friends if that is the case." Dawn cautioned him with a look of disgust at the idea or perhaps his dancing. Maybe both.

"At least the frosted tips?" He pleaded, but was rebutted by the stern look Britney Spears gave him.

"Do you need more time to get ready, Paige?" Dawn kindly enquired taking in her apparent unready to party state and flat expression.

"And where's your man that you have been going on and on about.." Magus added in a long suffering tone.

Paige felt the lump come back in her throat, which had momentarily disappeared upon seeing her friends. For the first time since getting the letter she had been distracted from thinking about him.

"He's not coming anymore.. Work stuff." She sullenly informed them, turning away to let the pair in.

"Oh honey!" Dawn sympathised, picking up on her barely concerned distress and following her inside to give her a hug.

Magus strolled after her inspecting the place with obvious interest as he went, for once he was tactfully silent

* * *

"It's fine. Just I was really looking forward to seeing him." Paige murmured, a lie followed by the truth as she slumped dejectedly to lean back against her small kitchen bench.

"I'm sure, how long has it been since you've seen him?" Dawn asked once she had released her friend and took a seat at the small table to listen.

"4 months." Paige glumly replied, although it felt a lot longer.

"And now you are worried he is slipping the salami to some Spanish tart instead, right?" Magus absently guessed, he had made himself at home, sitting in her other dining room chair with his sneakers up on the table. In obvious consternation he struggled away with one of her rubix cubes, his tongue hung out in concentration and his dexterous hands twisted the toy rapidly to no avail.

"Magus!" Dawn reprimanded him for his crude insinuation, luckily his ribs were out of jabbing range.

"Chorizo? Fine, whatever they call it in Spanish." He corrected having clearly not caught on to what he had said that was a faux pa.

"It doesn't matter. But I don't feel much like going anymore now though." Paige hurriedly cut off their bickering, there was a grain too many of truth in what her sometimes astute mentor had suggested.

"Come on now.." Dawn patted her hand reassuringly and gave Magus a dirty look.

Magus got up from his lazy seat to come over as well, the rubix cube having apparently outsmarted him.

"Look Kid," He started slowly apparently seeking to make up for his earlier indiscretion.

"Do whatever you want tonight, but if you are feeling a bit down and lonely maybe it is better to be out at least pretending to have fun. Who knows you might end up having a little by accident."

"Yeah, if you are feeling down at least you can have some company in it." Dawn surprisingly supported Magus for once. He looked as astonished as she did by the change in format.

"And booze." Magus added helpfully, as if it solved everything.

Paige reluctantly relented.

"Okay, I'll go get changed." She told them with a shaky smile and watering eyes.

"Cool, I'll be here trying to dig up all your dirty secrets that you keep in your flat while you are gone." Magus informed her and he dropped to the ground with surprising speed to peer underneath her bed. Dawn carefully encouraged him to his feet with a deft foot into a familiar rib.

* * *

"What are you, Paige? Let us guess." Dawn sat forward in excitement when the other girl eventually emerged from the bathroom. She had found a can of Guinness in her handbag to keep Magus preoccupied while they waited. He sipped at it while struggling in frustration with the Rubix cube once more.

The man beside her snorted in amusement at Paige's costume.

"What are you supposed to be? A bus driver?"

Dawn discouraged further sarcastic guesses by elbowing him sharply in her usual spot. By now, the rib in question on Magus had long since worn into having a familiar dent from her attacks that magic no longer had an effect in healing.

Paige gave an apprehensive turn on the spot to let them take it all in.

Aside from her navy blue, clearly identifiable uniform complete with hat and epaulets, she had a set of plastic handcuffs slung from her belt and a toy pistol in a holster. The costume itself was quite authentic down to the long blue trousers and the highly polished black leather shoes.

"A pilot?" Dawn carefully guessed.

"I change my guess to kinky bus driver because of the cuffs." Magus amended.

"I'm a policewoman! Since when did pilots carry a gun?" Paige protested hotly, not even bothering to address her mentor's guesses.

"I've never met a pilot, I don't know. They might!" Dawn defended herself.

"Living up to the costume already intelligence-wise I see." Magus smugly observed until his recently pierced ear got flicked.

"Oww dammit that hurt! Do you think the real JT has to put up with this?" He lamented to an unsympathetic Paige.

"It's true; blondes do have more fun." Dawn decided, remembering the tender spot for later.

Plucking the Rubix cube from the complaining man's hands, Paige threw it back on her table roughly, signalling it was time to leave.

While the celebrity couple continued a hushed argument between them about what muggle professions carried guns and which didn't, Paige locked up her place.

They walked to near the Ministry and entered thorough the public entrance, Magus insisted on such to spare his hair the trauma of the floo network or apparating.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N-** Fair warning, this chapter is a bit darker and graphic in nature, if you've read my previous writing you know what to expect. If you read it, let me know what you think.

- ** _Greysouthpaw._**

* * *

"Now this is my kind of party!" Magus exclaimed as they pushed their way through a stream of orange floating jacko-lanterns on the first floor atrium. All around them, fellow ministry workers were standing about laughing and joking, drinking bottles of butterbeer or sipping from skull shaped plastic cups that presumably held punch.

Their first stop was of course the well-stocked drinks table, where the ministry had clearly forked out big money for the holiday blowout. Firewhiskey, mulled mead, wine of all different years and vintage accompanied all manner of unfamiliar bottles that were diverse in shape, size and colour.

"Awww yeah, the fifteen year Cuba Santiago! Best Halloween party ever." Magus declared happily, lifting up a short bottle of expensive rum. He doused a skull tumbler of ice with the aromatic dark fluid and breathed in the rich scent with obvious pleasure.

Dawn busied herself inspecting the contents of various drinks and settled upon a glass of wine. Paige knowing little about the drinks, amazing as it seemed with her alcoholic mentor, decided to try the punch instead. It was the usual mix of various tropical fruits with a strong aftertaste to it, which suggested it had already been heavily spiked.

Two decidedly familiar Tracers found the trio at the drink table and stopped to chat. Jovial from the high quality booze, Magus even refrained from starting trouble and making a snide comment about Peregrin's disco ball costume. Makayla had come as jockey, complete with high leather boots and riding crop, it was a costume that fit her willowy physique quite aptly. Magus jokingly commented that the crop appeared already worn in and received a sharp, yet playful lash across the behind by its owner as a result.

Paige went to go dance with the pair and the night began to quickly disappear in her mind. One minute she was dancing with the two Tracers, then some of the younger men from magical games had joined them. Some of them were funny and she laughed loudly and uproariously, others were creepy or sleazy. Paige was initially grateful that Dawn and Magus never seemed to stray too far from sight and one would step in every now and then or move along any young wizards that were becoming too boisterous.

In one dark corner of the party a small group of older wizards had formed an iron circle, dressed together as a gaggle of cavemen. They talked and laughed in obvious segregation from the rest of the party.

Paige was exhilarated; she had never attended a huge party like this one before. It was a first time for her to really be out partying in general too and certainly getting intoxicated while doing so.

* * *

At some point later in the night Paige stood out on the landing, hot and sweaty, getting some fresh air and accepted another cup of punch from Dawn. Magus stood nearby telling a very rude joke, about a mermaid who granted wishes, to another pair of drunken Welsh wizards.

Paige leaned heavily on the balcony and gave Dawn a crooked grin.

"Glad you came?" Dawn asked her, returning the smile.

"Sure, am now!" She exclaimed back enthusiastically, her voice louder than usual due to the hearing loss sustained on the dancefloor.

"You two don't have to stick around and babysit me though." Paige hiccupped drunkenly to her friend.

Dawn looked somewhat guilty and took a sip of her own wine to mask it. Unlike Paige who couldn't clearly recall how many of the excellent cups of punch she had consumed, Dawn was still clearly in the low digits. Probably.

"Nah its cool, we are just hanging out." She insisted casually, catching a wink from Magus who was apparently not as invested in his conversation with the other wizards as he first seemed. Unlike Magus, Dawn did not seem to draw more attention than the occasional amorous glance, few witches or wizards actually stopped to talk to her. Paige drunkenly wondered if Magus was staying close as much to keep Dawn company as he was to keep a watchful eye over her.

Magus was surprisingly popular, several witches and wizards throughout the night, sought him out for a drink and a rambunctious laugh. He seemed to polarise people, to no one's surprise; people either laughed and joked with him or tried to avoid him, like he was insane.

A small number seemed openly hostile and more than once, Paige thought they were going to get another demonstration of some muggle brawling. The angry young wizard from Law Enforcement who Magus always seemed to lock horns with, was quite the upset dress-up soldier when the blotched patterns on his combat fatigues morphed into a rude variety of phallic shapes. Paige was secretly inclined to agree that it was unlikely that this had inexplicably happened just as her mentor was passing the ill-tempered man, but she held her tongue and helped Dawn drag the adamantly innocent Reverser away. It was also quite fortunate that Angus had not seen the state of his desk yet either based upon his lack of reaction to being called Anus.

When not trying to start trouble however, her mentor was a most lively party goer and always had a smart quip or joke to each new friend when he ran into them and always endeavoured to bring Dawn and Paige, if she was with him, into the conversations. Most as it seemed, owed some debt to the young brash Reverser who had helped them or someone close to them out of some trouble.

Paige observed that Dawn seemed to almost frighten away many of those seeking Magus's company, their visits and conversations were always shorter when she was with him at least. Every time Dawn looked hurt and about to leave him with his new guests, Paige noticed that Magus would make an excuse to leave and follow Dawn, usually complaining about the company they had just departed.

* * *

"Make Magus go dance with you." Paige suddenly slurred in what she hoped sounded like an order to her friend.

"No no. He's busy catching up with friends." Dawn quickly disregarded the idea, an odd expression fixed on her elfin face.

"You're his girlfriend though, he'll ditch them in an instant for a dance and a snog." Paige insisted.

"Haha I'm not his girlfriend, there will be no snogging!" Dawn told Paige in good humour.

"Aww why not?" Paige moaned drunkenly in protest.

"It's complicated." Dawn insisted, making a good effort at not meeting her curious gaze.

Dawn tried to play it off lightly, but Paige could see it was strained.

Once again, Paige recalled the cold, distant way other ministry workers treated Dawn and for the first time she considered that the reason Dawn always hung out in Magus's office was because maybe she felt unwelcome in her own. This thought made Paige both sad and angry at the same time.

"Doesn't have to be." Paige said in an intoxicated sing song voice.

"You don't know." Dawn vaguely elaborated and took another huge gulp of her drink.

"Don't need to. Can see you are both way into each other." Paige started dropping truth bombs like the party was Fallujah.

"Silly not to be with someone you love, if you can and they love you back." She added somewhat wistfully.

"You really miss Lawrence right now huh?" Dawn tried to change the subject and grabbing them both another drink from a passing tray.

Paige snatched her new drink suddenly furious.

"Don't talk to me about him tonight, I'm still mad at him for bailing on coming." She snarled uncharacteristically.

"Well, maybe it is like he said, some important opportunity for work." Dawn tried to calm her down. It didn't work.

"Yeah, something like the Spanish trollop that he works with; the exotic Luana!" Paige spat out the name and viciously stabbed at the toothpick in her drink, impaling a cube of pineapple.

"No..." Dawn vocally doubted this take on events.

Over at the nearby table, Magus delivered a punchline to uproarious laughter.

"Maybe Magus was right. I bet she is gorgeous, probably with big tits too." Paige continued to fume, anger beginning to give way to loneliness and sadness. She cast an irritable eye down her own flat chest and sighed.

"It's overrated, they hurt when you run." Dawn assured her friend offhanded, guaranteeing that Paige's eyes would be drawn to the low top on her costume and the reasonable amount of cleavage she had to display.

"But the boys like them more right?" Paige drunkenly considered.

The conversation was hijacked by Magus with a Cheshire cat grin plastered to his lopsided face as he threw his arms over the shoulders of the two girls and popped up between them.

"I get a tingling on the back of my neck when I hear the words 'Magus was right.' Also 'tits'. That always catches my attention." He eagerly entered the conversation, looking brightly between the pair and then the girls, to see what else they had to discuss.

"You guys should go dance!" Paige shouted in his ear and shrugging out under the arm to sloppily push her two friends together.

"Holy hell, Calamari is shitfaced! When did I miss this?" Magus crowed in glee, his indomitable balance unfazed by her shove even in his own clearly intoxicated state.

"I've only had a few, _hic_." Paige defiantly yelled once more in his face, it made quite a change to be the drunk one in the pairing for once.

"Apparently she gets really loud." He observed, rubbing his ear to see if that would help regain his hearing.

"And pushy." Dawn added at the unwelcome shove she got before.

"Seriously though, you guys. Go have a dance, I'll be fineee." Paige tried again, the pair exchanged uncertain looks.

* * *

From across the room Paige spotted her new friend from Magical Law Enforcement; Tiny Tim, as Magus had inversely dubbed the tall wizard and she hastened over to abduct him.

"I'll be hanging here with Tiny Tim!" She declared, reaching out to grab his long simian arm and drag him into the conversation. The tall man had donned a hardhat and a tool belt to go with his plaid shirt. He probably would have made good on his costume too, with his huge hands and thick arms he looked like quite the convincing builder.

"Haha Hey Paige, Magus, Dawn." He greeted them in his loping peaceful voice, a slow smile of surprise alighting his face.

"Hey Tiny."

"What's cracking Timmy?" They returned his amiable welcome.

"Cool party right?" Tiny gestured back towards the drunken throngs of people with one of his huge steam shovel hands. Beside them someone threw up loudly into a potted plant.

"So fun! I was just telling these two that they should go dance. You'll keep me company here right, Tim?" Paige asked entreatingly.

"Sure, I just got here, had to finish processing that Navarine guy. I have some catching up to do!" Tim readily agreed, knocking back his drink and eagerly reaching for another from a passing tray.

Dawn and Magus gave Tiny Tim a heated appraising look and then had one of their famous wordless arguments using only stares and eyebrows.

"Alright." Dawn agreed finally and one of her hands found one of Magus's.

"Keep an eye on her, Timmy." Magus warned with a pointing finger, the unsaid 'or else' was left to hang.

Paige got one last glimpse of an elated victorious faced Dawn before she led her man away.

Triumphantly she grinned back at Tiny Tim, who was looking somewhat intimidated by the parting words left by Magus. He had that effect sometimes.

"They are quite the funny pair." He slowly remarked about the recently departed.

"Two of the weirdest people I've ever met, but they are starting to grow on me." Paige conceded.

"They are looking out for you anyway." Tim pointed out.

"Shouldn't have to be the ones doing that." Paige slurred slightly and slopped drink down the front of her uniform.

"Who was supposed to be doing that then?" Not so Tiny Tim asked in amusement, he could hardly fail to notice her spilling of the drink.

"My boyfriend; Lawrence, but something stupid came up with his stupid work apparently." Paige irked out in frustration.

Tim was not a wise man but he knew not to make a comment at this and simply nodded his large head in acceptance, taking another big sip from his whiskey.

"Some interesting costumes here tonight, good theme; the muggle world." Tim changed the subject and casting his eyes around the room.

Paige thought he was right, there were some interesting costumes although in many ways it also represented the average wizards ignorance of the muggle world. She saw several others dressed like police officers, the occasional fireman or two, scientists a plenty and a couple of good Elvis impersonators out on the landing with them.

"Cavemen, how apt for their world view. I guess that is how some people still view the muggles." Tim snorted in disapproval and gestured his head towards a rowdy gaggle of predominantly older wizards. The silver haired bloke with the snake cane seemed to be their ringleader and was making some crude imitation of a muggle for their amusement.

Paige craned her neck towards the dancefloor, trying to catch a glimpse of her two enamoured friends. It was some fast song and she just glanced a view of some horrible jerry curls dancing vicariously with a 90s queen of pop.

She smiled to herself in drunken satisfaction, which was short lived as it turned out.

* * *

For Paige the world suddenly took on a bulged appearance, the whole room throbbed in time with her head and a horrible familiar stirring began in her stomach.

"Excuse me!" She burped ominously and clamped a hand over her mouth to supress the guest reappearance of her evening's drinks.

"Ugh Sure.." Tim hurriedly stepped out of her way as Paige staggered at a quick step towards the ladies bathroom. On the dancefloor, one of the couples caught attention from her movement, but they weren't the only ones. From a group over in the corner dressed as cavemen, a large rough hatchet faced man stepped from their ranks and discretely made his way towards the toilets too.

Paige erupted into an empty cubicle and fell to her knees, vomit cascading from her mouth and splashing into the toilet bowl. It seemed to go on for ever until her retching heaves held no more substance in them. Sweating and sobbing, she blew her nose to clear the chunks of spew that had gone up there.

In a distant part of her brain, Paige heard the door to the bathroom open. She was busy wiping her face and checking that she hadn't got any vomit on her clothes and didn't notice the new presence until they spoke right behind.

"I think you've had too much to drink." The rough male voice reprimanded and a firm hand closed around her arm, forcing her back up to her feet.

Paige caught a glimpse of a tall muscular man with black hair, sharp eyes and a thin dark moustache on his face. The grip on her arm was painfully vicelike and she protested loudly until something constricting seemed to tighten in her throat. A hastily whispered silencing charm from her handler that rendered her completely incapable of making a sound. Her arm was wrenched painfully up behind her back and a silent scream of pain was all she could issue.

Abandoning the idea of yelling for help, Paige reached her one free arm to pull her wand free from her pocket, but her attacker had anticipated this.

" _Expelliarmus!"_ He hissed and her wand flew from her fingers the scant distance to be caught by the same large hand that held his own.

"Stop trying to fight or things will end badly for you." The cold voice that breathed in her ear whispered harshly in warning.

It was perhaps the tone or the warning. But Paige could tell something bad was about to happen anyway. With a sharp stomp she ground her foot on top of her attackers. He growled in fury and snapped forward with pain, only for Paige to desperately lash her head back into his face. From the grunt and explosion of hot wetness at the back of her head, Paige was willing to bet she had just broken the man's nose. She used the opportunity and distraction to wriggle out from the painful armlock that had held her.

Paige had barely made a step towards the door, when the spell hit her in the back and she collapsed to the ground in absolute agony. She had barely heard him snarl " _Crucio!"_ but all the same her body was now wracked with pain sharp and raw. It was as though hot knives had been gouged into her skin, at every surface. Worse still the burning pain seemed internal too, as though the blades were trying to cut their own way out. Her unsettled stomach revolted again and she silently wretched once more. As sudden as it started, the torture began to fade, leaving the broken girl lying on the filthy bathroom floor soaked through with sweat.

"I was supposed to just question you, girl, find out how much you saw in Scotland. But now I'm going to do much worse." The cruel voice above her growled. With a flash of light, he made sure he locked the door and Paige looked up to see a malicious, evil grin facing her from below a bleeding and mutilated nose.

Paige lashed out with a foot, trying to kick him again as he tried to approach, but he held all the power. With another deft wand movement cords appeared out of thin air and bound her hands and feet.

Frantically Paige struggled with the bindings, terrified by the malicious expression that her assailant wore like a sinister mask.

Something knocked against the door briefly and his eyes snapped up predatorily at the noise. Paige strained her throat raw trying to make some sound to draw attention. When nothing more came from the door, the cruel cave man returned his gaze to the bound girl in front of him.

"I think we'll have the fun first and ask the questions later. That way you at least have an idea of the suffering I can cause you." He decided in a low threatening tone.

Paige shook her head in mixed horror and disbelief as her attacker slashed with his wand, tearing her shirt from neckline to midriff and leaving it to flutter open in exposure. A long thin line of blood had opened on her skin marking its path and Paige silently whimpered in agony. With an overlarge hand, he grabbed her by the throat and shoved her up against the wall, his other hand pressed the two wands sharply into her neck. Silent tears poured down Paige's cheek in pain and indignation.

She tried to retreat into a distant corner of her own head but the coarse pain of her attackers hands kept her firmly planted and flinching away. Her racing panicked mind took in the maliciously curved lips forming the syllables of another torturing curse.

* * *

A muffled explosion suddenly rocked the room, noiselessly but no less thunderous in the vibrations it carried through the floor. The bathroom door came bursting in and rushed straight towards her assailant who whipped around on the spot to lash a horrid green spell at it. A large hole appeared in the door where the spell impacted and suddenly the furious face of Magus McIntyre filled the gap. The young wizard charged forward with the door held in front of him like a shield, wearing hexs that would have otherwise hit him. With a roar he closed the final few metres and used the entire still floating door to crush Paige's assailant against the far wall.

The blow stunned his enemy and as the door rocked back, Magus shot around the side of it, his wand already chambered in attack. His first blow smashed his opponents two wands from their grip, the swing continued flowing through into another arching strike which collected the dark wizard across the jaw.

As the door fell away Dawn jumped out from behind it where she too had remained protected. She ran to Paige's side and split her bindings with a sharp " _Diffindo!"_ Paige frantically pointed at her throat and Dawn took a moment to understand what she was requesting and hastily uttered the counter curse to the silencing charm that had held her quiet.

"Macnair!" Magus spat out the name like it was the most revolting thing he could muster. He looked down on the sluggishly stirring ex-Death Eater where he sat slumped against the wall. Pausing for a moment, he pocketed the Death Eaters wand and kicked Paige's across into her reach. He carefully didn't look at his exposed student and instead shrugged off his red jacket and tossed it over to Dawn, who wrapped it around the girl's now shaking shoulders.

Unburdened of his jacket, Magus got to work. With a wave of his wand the bathroom door sprung back up and returned to its frame. The hole filled itself in and the lock turned again once more.

The wand then coiled back up onto his wrist by its tether.

That was when the beating begun.

Magus punched Walden Macnair again and again. Blow after savage blow, splitting skin with the blunt force, knocking teeth loose until the wicked man's head resembled nothing more than a bloody swollen mushroom. Entwining his fingers through the grimy hair, Magus pulled the unconscious man's head away from the smeared brick wall behind him and then violently drove it right back into it with a final devastating elbow. There was a frightening, cold fury to her mentor as he thrashed the man within an inch of his life and for the first time Paige was scared of her friend.

She was drawn to remember the description of her mentor as unstable and in that moment, was willing to believe it.

Her would be assaulter hung limp by her mentor's hand, his face a mashed unrecognisable mess of bubbling blood and swollen features. The gurgling, raspy breaths, painfully sucked through broken and dislodged teeth was the only indicator that the wounded man was still alive.

Magus looked like he was about to land another blow and finish the job, but Dawn softly caught one of his now bleeding hands and some of the fury leaked from his glare.

"Enough, we have to take care of Paige now." She insisted softly.

Humanity still didn't shine in Magus grey eyes yet though and he took a few moments to shake the dangerous mood that threatened to consume him.

"Did he….?" Magus tried to ask in a hoarse voice, but couldn't manage or comprehend the question. The adrenaline dump had left his throat raspy and difficult to speak with. The exertion had also caused his stitched cheek to start slowly oozing blood once more, not that he seemed to notice or care. His gaze was still carefully averted and a muscle in his temple seemed to pulse with the force he had his jaw gritted.

"He wanted to question me, he used the cruciatus curse.." Dawn managed to gasp.

"That son of a bitch!" Dawn growled and Magus turned to give the unconscious man another bone breaking punch for good measure. A low groan was all the noise he issued in protest, his eyes sunken and already swelling shut from trauma.

"Wipe this oxygen thief, Dawn and lets fuck off!" Magus gruffly ordered her, trading places to help Paige slowly stand up.

Dawn hovered over the prone body and jabbed her wand into his temple perhaps a little harder then she had to.

"We'll drop you off at your parent's place." Magus told Paige softly an arm protectively across her shoulder as she continued to sob.

"No!" She suddenly howled in alarm.

"I don't want my mum and dad seeing me like this." She coldly sobbed.

"Fine, we'll take you home, but Dawn is staying the night to take care of you." He relented reluctantly.

"This party is over.." Dawn grimly agreed and the three scarpered for the nearest exit.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N-** Funny story; I dislocated my shoulder last weekend, so I have a bit of time off work and therefore some writing time!

Some intense shit last chapter? Here is something a bit lighter and I've played with some ideas for transitioning time and scene, happy for any feedback on it.

Got another chapter rolled up ready to go shortly after this one and it is juicy! Just one of the action sequences I had built in my head when I started writing this story, but one I'm quite excited to finally get up.

- _ **Grey 'Sling-armed' Southpaw.**_

* * *

Paige had awoken Sunday feeling truly miserable, with the taste of vomit and shame in her mouth. The bed she woke in was not her own and she was startled to find herself partially undressed and beside a heavily snoring Dawn. There was a sour smell in the room and Paige silently located the clean set of clothes that were left out for her and quickly got dressed. Not wanting to talk about it with her host or still sleeping companion, Paige had snuck out of the spare room at Magus's place, of which she had no memory of returning to the previous night. Her memory in general was a patchy alcohol fuelled haze. Her head pounded with every step and she noticed that it was still dark outside as she ducked out of the flat.

Upon arriving back at her own flat, Paige went inside, vomited bile in the toilet for several minutes, locked the door and fell straight back into bed.

It was there she stayed.

Paige called in sick to work Monday morning for the first time in her life. While her state paled in comparison to the hungover mess she had been the day before, given what had happened at the party she couldn't bear to show her face.

Her owl which she had sent to Magus to inform him she was unwell and wouldn't be coming into work, remained unanswered. Feeling more hopeless and alone than ever, Paige buried herself deeper into her blankets.

How long she lay in bed, she could not recall; it could have been minute's hours or days. It was hours.

Eventually she was roused from its warm comfort from a sharp knock on her door. Given her current feelings Paige was happy to ignore the unwanted guest at the door, which was fine until they decided to enter under their own accord.

For once it was not the rude Magus knocking on or in doors to find her.

It was Dawn.

"Your security sucks." She softly criticised closing and relocking the door with a jab of her wand. Paige simply rolled over in her bed to present her back to the other girl.

"Not feeling well huh?" Dawn tried again, gently taking a seat on the side of her bed.

"I'm sick. Go away." Paige muttered into her pillow.

Dawn gently sighed.

"Yesterday you were sick, I know; I helped clean the vomit off the floor of Magus's spare room." She reminded her friend in an amused tone, who flushed even further. _Was this supposed to make her feel better?_

"Today it is something else. The aftermath of your ordeal Saturday night?" Dawn guessed and correctly as it would seem as Paige's body stiffened up under the hand that had soothingly been rubbing circles on her back.

"It's okay you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. But staying in bed all day won't make you feel better." Dawn continued rubbing her back again and Paige finally turned over to face her.

Reluctant to admit what was bothering her, but beaten out by curiosity and a genuine desire to feel better, Paige asked the question.

"And what will make me feel better." She demanded with a little more bite than she had meant to use on a friend.

Dawn seemed unperturbed, if anything she appeared pleased for the response.

"Well it is usually not just one thing you see, let's try a few different ideas." Dawn brightly suggested.

* * *

 ** _Que the cheering up montage! I'm thinking something upbeat, yet sad, like maybe: Missy Higgins's 'Scar'. Go on try it, put it on now. I'll wait… ;)_**

* * *

"A nice hot shower and a clean-up is always a good start." Dawn began chirpily over the sound of a running shower as Paige used the bathroom.

/

"Something sweet and decadent for a late breakfast, so you have something in your tummy." Dawn narrated to the now tousle haired and dressing gowned Paige. Skilfully she presented two plates of French toast with banana, bacon and maple syrup on it.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"Look nice to feel nice." Dawn's voice carried from Paige's wardrobe as she dug through the clothes there and held up several options.

/

A fully dressed Paige in a set of black jeans and a purple top let herself be dragged along by Dawn who trailblazed their way down past one of the local parks. In her bright canary yellow robes with black leggings underneath, Dawn was quite the colourful contrast.

It was a surprisingly nice day outside, with the sun peeking around grey clouds.

"Some fresh air and sunlight does wonders!" Dawn explained to an unconvinced looking Paige.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"Even if it is only to get coffee!" Dawn added as they stepped into their favourite coffee shop.

There was the hint of a smile on Paige's face as she accepted the steaming takeaway cup from her friend.

/

"Manicure and pedicure for the win!" Dawn exclaimed from the seat next to her friend as they were attended to by a pair of filing workers.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

After the nail treatment they took their coffee to sit on a parkbench and watch the world go by.

"So how are you feeling?" Dawn hopefully enquired of her friend.

"A bit better, thanks Dawn." Paige found a small effort for the other girl. It was odd that Paige realised now she actually didn't have many close friends. At Hogwarts she had always been so focused on her study and Lawrence had been one of her only close friends and later her boyfriend. Without him, she didn't have anybody else really. It was sombre thought to dwell on.

"You want to talk about it?" Dawn offered gently.

It took Paige a moment to fully articulate how she was feeling.

"It's a mess of things; I feel abandoned by Lawrence, I feel nervous at work, I feel ashamed for getting so drunk and making a fool of myself last night."

Dawn nodded understandingly and looked like she was about to interrupt so Paige quickly carried on.

"But most of all I feel afraid and helpless after….. after last night.." She broke off, her voice cracking and tears welling in her eyes.

"Oh honey." Dawn cooed and pulled her into a hug.

"I was frozen with fear, just like I did in Scotland. I was useless. "Paige lamented with a little self-pitying sob.

"I was terrified about what might happen and afterwards I thought how stupid I was!" She continued angrily now.

"Hey this was not your fault. Macnair is more monster than the beasts he disposes of." Dawn did interrupt this time and sharply too.

"But he picked on me because I was an easy target right?" Paige protested.

Dawn carefully chose her answer.

"Well you were vulnerable at the time. But you were always going to be an easier victim than Magus right?"

"Anyone would be an easier target than the crazy Medicine Man." Paige was forced to agree. Her mind flashed back to her usually jovial mentor duelling like a madman or boldly taking on opponents almost twice his size.

Dawn was forced to smile at this; he was rather crazy.

"So what would the Medicine Man say if he was here?" Dawn asked her.

"He would probably make some terrible joke like about how skinny I am and how that should me harder to hit with spells." Paige found a chuckle too.

Dawn giggled at her answer.

"Or he would say something like 'Dammit Kid, do I have to bail your skinny ass out of everything?'" Dawn gave her own answer in an exaggerated Irish accent in imitation of their friend.

Both girls cracked up laughing.

"I think he'd say something like, 'Why didn't I get French toast or a manicure?" Another voice suggested, this Irish brogue was the genuine article though.

Magus McIntyre stood stopped by the bench in full running gear, bright red and covered in sweat. He looked exhausted, but rather smug.

"What no one brought me coffee either?" He lightly asked to the now silent girls.

Dawn sent him a frosty look and shoved her own half drunk cup into his hands.

Through grated teeth she accosted him in a lowered voice.

"I thought we decided I'd have a talk with Paige alone.." She reminded him cagily.

"Hey I was just going for my morning run." Magus innocently protested.

"In a completely different park from usual?" Dawn shot him a sceptical look.

"I wanted to change things up. You are always telling me to try new things or is that just you trying to talk me into some kinky bondage or something?" The cocky Magimedic replied with a saucy waggle of his lopsided eyebrows.

Dawn reached up and violently flicked the stud that was still in his ear, the area around the site looked inflamed and infected, possibly due to repeated flicking.

Magus winced and recoiled away from further retaliation, while Dawn rolled her eyes furiously with a red tinge to her cheeks.

"Seriously though, how you holding up kid?" Magus finally managed to ask Paige once he had circumvented a still irritable Dawn. He joined them on the bench, sitting on the other side of Paige.

"Been better. I feel weak and useless." Paige honestly replied. She had been glad for the distraction the bickering pair had provided but now the focus was back on her.

"Well you are pretty weak." Magus conceded.

Quick as lightning he was flicked in the ear once more and doubled over in pain.

"Jackass! And you wondered why I wanted to do this alone?" Dawn furiously flicked him again while he was down

"He's right though." Paige glumly agreed cutting off Dawn mid tirade.

"I am weak." She softly admitted aloud.

"Diagnosis is the first step in treatment." Magus sagely nodded, guarding his ear from further reprieve and sending a sulking stare at Dawn.

"This is something we can work on, I'll train you to be as tough as me." He promised seriously, puffing his chest out.

He glanced at Dawn for approval and she suddenly raised her hand to strike him again. Magus flinched in fear before realising it was a feint.

" **We** will train you to be tough." Dawn corrected him with a smirk.

* * *

Days turned into weeks that turned into months working at the MAC alongside the mad Magus McIntyre. Jobs were done, laughs were had, tears were shed, but she survived it with the support of her friends. As promised her mentor put her through his own toughening up regime that became increasingly more difficult.

As Magus explained, fitness was one of the cornerstones of toughness, it was also an underrated trait in the wizarding community. The fitness programme he had started with her only increased at the start of each workday until Paige started finding muscles where once there was only pain. As he told her once when they had finished a tough set of exercises: "There is no potion of spell that can truly substitute for fitness."

Pain was also an important aspect of toughening one up it seemed. Paige found herself on more than one occasion having to bite back tears while one of the others mended her broken nose or a dislocated shoulder. These injuries most commonly occurred in her no-rules, duelling sessions that she participated in with Dawn and Magus in the preparation room. The no-rules part was heavily emphasised and she was allowed to use any dirty spell or trick within her arsenal to win against her opponent.

They took it in turns to face her and sometimes the two older wizards would even duel each other. It was obvious that this was fight that had been fought often. It also highlighted the difference in the way each of them duelled. Dawn was lighting fast with her spellwork and body alike, but delicate in her constitution, one good spell or hit was usually enough to drop her so she liked to keep her distance. Magus was the opposite, the tenacious prick just would not stay down and more than once, had cheekily fired spells from the ground while seemingly defeated. His spellwork was much slower and limited but he made up with it by the danger he presented at close range. Magus preferred to close distance and physically fight his opponent, where he could directly control their wand and overwhelm them with his superior magicless fighting style.

As he drilled into her with their fighting sessions: "There is no prize for fighting fair, you are aiming to survive. Anything worth fighting for, is worth fighting dirty for."

Paige watched and learned, an always keen student and while she lost every single fight she learned from each of them too. Each time she would lose by less and never in the same way though and that was in itself, progress and a testament to the new found determination she had to toughen up. Lessons never needed repeating with her and the trademark Ravenclaw mind meant that she had a far wider array of spells at her disposal.

And so ever she grew; fitter, tougher and by far smarter than her two colleagues. Not that Magus would ever admit it.

* * *

Before Paige knew it, the end of the year was closing up on them and the cold weather with it. Accordingly, Magus and her were less than stoked when they received a call out as soon as they walked in on frigid Monday morning.

"Christ it is cold today." Magus muttered, his teeth chattering in an odd departure from fashion. Usually it was Paige bitching about the cold and him enduring it in silence or else giving her plenty of shit.

Accordingly, she couldn't let the comment pass without getting a jibe in.

"Maybe you are getting weak? Doesn't seem that cold to me." She suggested and blatantly lied, trying to conceal a wracking shiver. Over the past few weeks Paige had gradually learnt to give shit back to her mentor as a form of her own amusement and release.

He of course saw right through her lies.

"You are a terrible liar and have even worse coffee breath!" Magus replied snidely, because of course he had a comeback.

They entered the preparation room and each grabbed an extra thick parka to ward off the gathering cold outside. They were heading out to a remote farming village where it was bound to be snowing heavily.

Magus waved the red slip of parchment in his hand as if it was his own death warrant.

"Unconscious, unknown cause, unknown caller; I'm going to hedge my bets and say drunk and passed out." He predicted with as much foresight as Professor Trelawny. To be fair it was a common complaint they attended especially outside the Hogshead on a Friday or Saturday. Paige had become quite adept at rousting the drunks and getting them to stop sleeping in the streets, under the master's tutelage of course.

"So basically you at the end of most days?" Paige fired back at him.

"Oooh someone does have her sassy pants on today. Did you get laid last night or something Calamari?" Magus avoided her dig and riposted with his own quality banter.

"No! Shut up!" Paige flushed terribly, giving away the game completely.

Lawrence had made his long overdue return to the country the following night and although things had been frosty at first, they had quickly warmed to each other again.

"Oh my god! You did, didn't you? Go you little slut!" Magus crowed triumphantly at her mortified expression. He shrugged on his thick dragon-hide vest as usual and checked a pocket or two briefly.

Together they stepped into the circle, but separately they apparated. Paige was pleased to say she was getting better at it. Soon she was going to try side-along apparating in anticipation of retrieving patients.

They appeared on the outskirts of a poor looking township in fields thick with snow.

"Oooh a surprise visit from your Spanish study geek was it? Or have you given him the flick already?" Magus clapped his fluffy mittened hands to his face in scandal.

Paige carefully kept her quiet, the damage already being done. Magus would of course not drop the topic.

She tried unsuccessfully to trudge through the snow in silence.

"Or is it another girl? No judgement here, Dawn did say she got a vibe off you when you get drunk.." Magus guessed again wildly misreading her silence.

"Is there any chance at all we can just focus on this case?" Paige finally pleaded to bring an end to his ceaseless and baseless prattling.

"Fine, but it is not forgotten.." Magus grumbled, reluctantly exposing a wand hand to the biting wind as they scanned the flat terrain.

"Seriously though, I'm changing my bet from drunk to hypothermia." He told her as they pushed through the calf deep snow towards an old farmhouse where the call had been pinpointed to.

"I swear it is getting colder.." Magus groaned again in one-sided conversation as they stacked up outside the small side door of the barn.

With a nod the now silent pair pushed into the barn, wands concealed but at the ready.

"What the fuck?!" Magus muttered in confusion at the sight that met them.


	15. Chapter 15

Two bodies were strewn on the straw covered ground of the barn, they appeared to be young and rough from their appearances, probably farmhands. One was obviously dead, his skin a light blue tinge, frozen in a horrible foetal position, clutching his head as if trying to escape a nightmare in his brain. His eyes stared in a dead blank expression like no dead body Paige had ever seen yet. It was as though no humanity had inhabited the eyes even before he had died.

The second young man was still alive but not by much, his skin was ominously pale and he sat rocking back and forth in a ball on the ground. The cause was dreadfully apparent from the pair of black robed spectres that hung in mid-air over the two.

Paige recognised it from her time in Hogwarts when the serial killer was loose, it was unmistakeable.

Dementors; the personification of despair.

"Patronus. Now!" Magus sharply ordered Paige, who didn't need the prompt and was already casting the complex charm. To her surprise she found her mad mentor simply charging rather than conjuring his own one.

Paige shot a wave of white smoke at the creepy undead creature and it ceased its horrific suctioning of the air for a moment. The air which had seconds previously became frigid and heavy to breath seemed to thaw for a brief reprieve.

Magus made the most of it, barrelling past the spectre and roughly gripping the last survivor by his collar and throwing him across his shoulders in a fireman's carry. He didn't even break stride and simply kept right on running until he came to the big double doors of the barn. With a colossal kick the old wood blew out from his force and he ducked through the hole, hastily followed by Paige.

The young witch screwed up her face in concentration and threw out another weak patronus at the stalled Dementors.

Ahead the bright lights of the nearby small town blinked teasingly, so close.

"Got to get away. Faster, further. No no no no.." Paige heard her mentor chanting in front of her as they barrelled through the snow back towards the village.

The two haunting Dementors were delayed by Paige's feeble patronus cloud, but it wasn't long before they were gliding after the escaping wizards. With no visible feet, the twin spectres drifted over top the snow eerily without leaving a trace and it made them much quicker than their crunching overburdened prey.

Paige threw out another patronus, the weakest of the lot, she felt drained and scared and was struggling to hold onto a pleasant thought at all. At the start of the town she was shocked to see her mentor had stopped all of a sudden.

He turned on her with wild unseeing eyes, his face twisted in torment as he clutched his head.

"No! No! I'm sorry! I couldn't save you! It wasn't my fault.." He lamented, caught in some horrible unseen memory. He began to crumple under the weight of the man on his shoulders.

"Come on Magus, pull yourself together! We have to get out of here!" Paige shouted at him and hauling at his shoulder, desperate to get him moving in the right direction again.

The stout man reluctantly followed her lead, mumbling, stumbling and muttering morosely the whole time as she dragged him down the frosty streets.

"I tried…. Please don't take it away from me!" Magus begged as he began to slow, the Dementors continuing to close the distance.

Her patronus too weak to fend them off long, Paige wracked her brain for a means of escape or refuge. The cold felt as though it had seeped into her bones and in her head she could hear the jeers of old bullies. A familiar voice she loved, spoke hurtful words and somehow that was enough to spur her into action. In desperation she blew in the window of a nearby shop with a _reducto_ and hustled them through it. The streets and shops appeared completely empty, probably due to the thick snowfall.

* * *

It was an odd corner store with a variety of food and beverage options, snacks spilled across the floor as they climbed through. In a sudden moment of inspiration, Paige snatched up a fistful of chocolate bars and forced them on her mentor.

"Eat!" She ordered, already ripping the wrapper off a snickers bar with her teeth. It just seemed quicker than trying to use her numb fingers.

A miserable, delusional Magus complied dejectedly between ragged sobs and started eating the chocolate, paper and all.

After the first mouthful Paige sighed in relief, the rich chocolate seemed to have ignited a fire in her belly, she felt her limbs filling with strength and the coldness becoming a distant ebb.

Suddenly remembering the man they had hauled from the barn, Paige over eagerly shoved candy in his mouth too. She got several confused murmurs for her trouble but the man seemed to stir a little.

Magus however was not so reinforced by the antidote. His eyes still seemed foggy and distant as if he was looking on a different plain of existence. His chocolate covered lips seemed to whisper on their own accord, but his colour had improved slightly.

Paige forced more chocolate on him and fired a reinvigorated patronus charm out the window to stop the Dementors coming in. The initial buzz from the chocolate was fading however and a familiar desperation was beginning to return. Paige was exhausted from hauling the other two through the snow and from the complex magic required to keep the fiends at bay. With renewed vigour she tried to bring her mentor back to his senses.

"Magus, come on snap out of it." She urged him to little avail in his near delirious state.

"What's the point?" He lamented flatly, his head lolling back.

"I need you!" Paige shouted out at him, physically trying to shake him out of his depression.

"Sorry, I'm not much good to anyone. I need a drink.." Magus gasped mournfully, like a man dying of thirst.

An idea suddenly caught in Paige's mind and she started fighting with the zip on his vest.

"Fine. Where is it?" She demanded, riffling through his pockets.

Slowly and numbly, Magus reached in and withdrew a familiar looking silver flask. He was too clumsy to open the vessel, but Paige managed to wrestle the cap off for him and she pressed it to his lips.

He drank slowly in small sips, which turned into fortifying gulps and Paige finally let him hold it himself.

With a loud burp, Magus McIntyre lowered the flask with a small spark of life back in his eyes. His lips were still blue and his pale face blanched and wracked again with a shiver.

"Paige? What's happening?" He grunted in confusion, looking about wild-eyed.

"Dementors. You sort of lost it for a bit there." She explained, dizzy with relief at his return to sanity.

"I can't do a patronus, never could. The Dementors…they affect me bad.." Magus shamefully apologised and seemed to take in his surroundings for the first time.

"Chocolate. Smart move Ravenclaw." He nodded appreciatively and weakly chowed down on another bar himself, while the drained girl in question fired off another cloud of patronus out the window.

"But booze is even better." He muttered, staggering on unsteady feet over to a small beer fridge.

Paige turned back at the sound of a bottle opening and saw her mentor skulling back a beer, while already opening a second.

"Gives you a booze blanket, provides you with some protection from Dementors for a small time." He explained in between a deep prolonged burp. "Tends to mean they hit you harder though once the initial buzz wears off."

Roughly he tossed a cold heiniken to Paige while he sat their patient up and pinched his nose. Tilting the man's head back, he started pouring beer that he was heating with his wand, down the unlucky man's throat. He coughed and spluttered at first, but seemed to swallow most of it.

A refreshed Magus ducked down an aisle and returned with several bottles of wine. His face had set in a grimace worse than before and he gestured over the counter with a flick of his head.

"There's another person over there, all sucked dry by these things." He grimly revealed between recovering sips.

Paige gasped in horror, this now seemed more than an isolated attack.

"Do you think… could it be this whole village?" She could barely voice the picture her brain had created.

"I don't know maybe.. seems way too damn quiet around here." He suspiciously replied fighting back another shiver.

"I can't keep this up, Magus.." Paige despondently called back to him, her teeth chattering and the cold invading again. She had warmed her own beer up, but could barely stomach to drink it.

"Drink up. We aren't staying here." He told her, before knocking the top off a cheap merlot and beginning to drink deeply.

Paige accepted a wine instead and drank until she thought she would burst, the fumes made her head dance.

The alcohol did indeed warm her up and it seemed to have breathed new life into her mentor. He still seemed too weak to apparate or conjure any real magic though, but he dutifully slung their now snoring patient over his broad shoulders once more with a bit of help from Paige.

"There is a car out there." He pointed with the stem of a wine bottle and he chugged some more between his explanation.

"We need to get to it and drive as far and as fast as we can." He grimly stated in a slur, wiping the dripping red liquid from his chin and pushing another bottle of 8 dollar Chardonnay on his student.

His eyes found hers for his next instruction and there was nothing intoxicated about their seriousness for a change.

"Dementors don't seem to affect you as much as me. So you have to drive. Regardless of what happens, just drive, Paige." He gave as his final orders.

Paige nodded grimly and they crouched at the entrance they had created. The snow was thin out on the street, with a light sleet falling, broken only by the swooping of two wraiths.

* * *

They ran for the small VW golf together, Paige having fired one last Patronus in exhaustion.

Magus knocked the rear window in with his elbow and roughly shoved the still unconscious patient through the glass. He reached through with dull hands and managed to open the passenger side door.

On the other side Paige had slid across the bonnet and vanished the window, simply jumping though the now open portal. She furiously jammed her wand at the ignition several times, hearing it whine against the cold.

"Come on!" She encouraged the muggle device.

The oppressive melancholy began to creep in again and Paige's mind cast back to all the dead bodies she had seen in the past few months. Death seemed inescapable.

But finally on the forth try it turned over and caught, the engine humming into life. Paige looked to her passenger side and was shocked to see her mentor not beside her.

Instead he was suspended on shaking legs just outside the car as a Dementor clasped his face with clammy rotting hands and was leaning forward.

"Magus!" Paige shrieked in horror, the coldness ebbing in harder and clouding her vision once more.

The alcohol burned in her stomach and Paige leaned boldly out the open door on his side. She just managed to clasp the hood of his jacket and desperately pulled with all her might.

The Dementors weren't strong in their grip, because they relied on despair to keep their victims weak and the paralyzed wizard fell away from the rotting hands and into the car.

Magus slumped into his seat, sobbing and crying uncontrollably, tears freezing on his face.

"I can't go back!" He despaired over and over again.

Paige collapsed back into her seat and gunned the engine, making it growl almost in warning to the flying fiends. Panicky, Paige pushed on the gear lever until with a crunch the car lurched forward off the spot and down the street, kicking up a spray of snow. Having never driven before, Paige had only a basic understanding to rely on and they squealed down the street in a horrid over revving first gear until she figured out how to change it.

Magus moaned beside her.

"I'm sorry mum, I couldn't do it!" He howled morosely, still half hanging out the open door.

Paige drew the door closed with her wand and almost hit a lamppost in her distraction. The car slid on the icy road and Paige bounced it off the side of a parked car instead. Whether due to distance from their foes, the jolt of impact or simply time, Magus appeared to come back to the real world.

"Who taught you to drive?" He croaked weakly in criticism, rubbing his neck where they had whiplashed against the stationary car. Thankfully their momentum kept them coming forward. In the rear-view mirror the two spectres dutifully gave chase, but were falling behind.

"Should of just let him get kissed.." Paige grumbled under her breath at him and ignoring her mentor as he drew a cheap bottle of wine from out of his jacket.

"It would be about the most action I'm getting these days.." He joked feebly, spilling wine all over his jacket as they skidded around another corner faster than they should have.

"Change up." He weakly added in advice at the horrible straining of the motor.

Paige gritted her teeth and kicked in the crutch or the clutch, whatever it was called. She rammed the little car into third gear and they began to pick up speed as the road straightened up to lead out of town.

"You could be getting some action." Paige drunkenly blurted out, not realising how much the alcohol had caught up with her.

"Your sister is pretty easy from what I hear.." Magus agreed equally shitfaced and wishing to avoid any serious conversation as usual.

"And you are the most ignorant and disgusting individual I know." Paige informed him politely at the crass comment. The road straightened out and she turned her anger into speed. She had made the mistake of mentioning her older sister a few weeks back, who as it turned, may have attended Hogwarts at the same time he did. Although Magus claimed not to know her very well at all that hadn't stopped him from using her as another platform for his teasing.

"I'm going to tell Mundungus you said that and I think he will be quite upset." He shot back.

"Fine, don't talk about it. But she's going to get tired of waiting for you at some point." Paige warned him and accepting his offered wine bottle against her better judgement.

"I reckon we've maybe given them the slip." Magus changed the subject looking out the back of the car for any pursuing quarry.

"Oh my god, I'm drunk driving!" Paige startlingly realised in horror, slamming her foot on the brakes.

The unrestrained Magus smashed forward and tumbled out the front windscreen and onto the bonnet. Paige covered her mouth in shock, hoping she hadn't just finished off her mentor.

There was a loud moan of agony and slowly a hand clawing its way back up the hood. Painfully her mentor pulled himself back to standing and gave her an unappreciative glare.

"Do you see any goddamn policeman around here, Calamari?" He groaned and winced as he dusted off broken glass. He pointed his wand drunkenly at the wrist he had broken on the way out the windscreen and it slowly straightened itself out with a dreadful grinding crepitus.

"Also. Ouch! Thanks for that!" He squawked in pain at the realigning limb.

Paige just stared out in terror at the prospect of what would have happened if they had been caught by the muggle police.

"Freak out on your own time, lets get out of here." Her wincing mentor interrupted her train of thought. He hauled the unfortunate patient from the footwell where he had ended up with Paige's driving and the somewhat recovered pair of Reversers apparated.

* * *

Emerging back in the preparation room, Paige felt the unpleasant knotting of her stomach from travel and she dashed on wobbly legs for the bathroom. She made it about half way before she slumped to her knees and vomited right into the open face of one of the changing room lockers.

"Merry Christmas, Ben." She spat apologetically, reading the name on the locker she had just hurled in.

Returning to the preparation room, she found her mentor assessing the patient they had recovered.

"You want the good news or bad news?" He slurred, slumping back on his butt on the plain concrete floor. His face was pale and blotchy, like he was the one who had just vomited. His face was covered in tiny flecks of blood from the car and his eyes seemed hollow and sunken in their sockets.

"Bad first." Paige decided slowly, thinking at least they could handle it together.

"You weren't the only one getting lucky this morning, this fella has had a kiss too."

Magus indicated the pale, unresponsive figure.

"The Dementors kiss?!" Paige gasped in disgust, knowing what that meant for the poor man. She collapsed to the ground next to her mentor and her unfortunate patient in disgust.

"Or Madonna's kiss, I actually think they do the same thing." Magus joked inappropriately as usual. Somehow his twisted sense of humour had survived the ordeal.

"Well what's the good news then?" Paige demanded, hoping it was damn good to make up for the revelation. She had hoped they would have at least win out of the terrifying debacle of an escapade.

"The good news is he's dead now, so he didn't have to live without a soul for very long." Magus remarked shortly.

There was silence in the room as he let the words sink in, but Paige eventually broke it in search of more information.

"How did he die?" She softly asked.

"Hypothermia would be my guess. He doesn't seem to have broken his neck during your destruction derby in any case." Magus shrugged matter-of-factly.

It was at that moment that the fire beside them crackled and a figure stepped through the flames.

It was the tall nervous figure of Unwin Doit.

"I heard you'd got back and.. oh my!" He gasped at the two pale officers and the corpse.

"Whassup?" Magus snorted drunkenly from his lazy position on the ground.

"What.. What happened? Who is this?" The head of department stammered in shock and nervous outrage.

Magus laboriously fought his way to his feet and stumbled over to his boss.

"Demenor attack.." He garbled in overly dramatic suggestion.

"No idea who the poor stiff is." Magus added lightly as he noticed his boss's eyes glued to the dead man on the floor.

Unwin snapped his head back to stare at his officer and immediately recoiled form the stench on his breath.

"Are.. you drunk?" He enquired suspiciously and the first signs of an air of authority creeping into his tone.

"Proper written off. The kid too." Magus honestly replied with a small contagious shivering giggle that Paige ended up picking up the tail of.

Unwin Doit was speechless at the audacity of the revelation and Magus obviously thought it bared explaining this time.

"For protection against the Demnors, of course." He mumbled drunkenly like it was obvious.

Paige nodded earnestly in the background and tried not to giggle.

Unwin continued his goldfish impression for a good thirty seconds, so Magus decided to speak again.

"Get the Law Enforcement geeks and the sheep shaggers from Magical Creatures down to that village we were just at. Tell em to bring lots of hot chocolate for the trip. Looks to be the whole place has been feasted on by Dementors." McIntyre grimly recommended to his boss and began staggering towards the fire.

"Dementors? A whole village? Preposterous!" Unwin blustered in disbelief.

"Well you could ask lover boy there, but he already got the big kiss goodnight." Magus joked mirthlessly and gestured over his shoulder at the corpse.

"You are welcome to go with the chumps from Law if you don't believe me?" He suggested getting right up in his bosses face this time.

"That's if you aren't scared?" He added mockingly at the withdrawl in disgust his idea caused.

"No no. I'll get a message to them right away." The head of squad agreed quickly.

"As for Calamari and me; we are clocking out early today, seems best right?" Magus proposed in way of seeking permission, something Paige had never heard of him doing.

"Of course. Of course. Have a report for me by the end of Friday." Unwin hurriedly agreed.

"I just gave it, weren't you writing it down?" Magus chuckled, drunkenly lobbing his vest across the room and tripping face first into the floo fire.

"I'll write something up." Paige quickly promised her stunned looking boss, before hurriedly stumbling to keep up with her mentor.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N-** Hey guys! A new chapter for you guys with hopefully some twists and a laugh or two; like a snake dressed up as a clown. Damn that was a terrible joke.. Ah well. This chapter is dedicated to the lovely **myfoodisnotshared,** who left me a delightful review; hope it keeps you entertained!

Enjoy.

 _ **-Grey.**_

* * *

Paige emerged back in the office to land heavily on her prone and snoring mentor, covering him liberally in ash.

"Dawn!?" He hollered drunkenly in confusion, jerking awake with a start.

"Wrong girl. Nice to see who's on your mind though." Paige teased, getting off the wasted wizard.

"It's only cause I can't remember your sister's name." He assured her and giving Makayla and Peregrin what he probably thought was smooth nod, an effect that was largely lost since he was still lying on the floor.

"Such a pig!" Peregrin commented on Paige's behalf, who was grinding her teeth in annoyance.

"Well if that isn't cauldron calling the kettle black." Magus snorted derisively and slowly staggered to his feet, using the girl's desk for support.

Peregrin went bright red at his comment and tried to leap across the table to slap the bejesus out of him. Makayla and Paige fought to keep her bulk restrained as she pawed at him furiously. She eventually found her head enough to fire a hex between the pair at Magus. He managed to dodge it or, or rather fell out of the way drunkenly, whether on purpose or not was unclear.

The orange hex sailed past him and hit Unwin Doit instead, who himself was just remerging from the fire. The head of department stumbled under the weight of the spell and suddenly started involuntarily squealing like a pig. Each time he tried to speak a high pitched oinking shriek issued instead.

As hilarious as it all was, Hexing your boss is still frowned upon and once Magus had stopped laughing long enough to reverse the hex, there was hell to pay.

"What is the meaning of this? Fighting in the office!" He demanded indignantly looking between his outraged Tracer and his two drunken Reversers.

"I'm sick and tired of his fat jokes!" Peregrin thundered.

"Would you say that you are 'fed up'?" Magus drunkenly confirmed with a somehow straight face.

"There he goes again! It's not funny.." Peregrin shrieked in outrage.

"It's a little funny." Magus pointed out lightly.

Several other faceless voices piped up from nearby offices in support, much to Peregrin's chagrin. Unwin unleashed a loud bang from his wand to bring silence again. Amanda Peregrin continued to fume and glare at the wisecracking Reverser.

"Come on Amanda, it is just friendly banter." Magus offered her.

"I crack on you for eating lots and you rip into me about my alcoholism or my extremely large penis." Again, somehow he seemed to keep a straight face at this explanation.

"Which, by the way are we doing anything about that?" Peregrin gestured to the obviously inebriated Reverser and staring expectantly at the team leader for his solution.

Unwin Doit opened his mouth several times, but Magus beat him to an answer.

"It's being managed; I tuck it into my waistband and try not to kneel on it while I'm working." The Irish wizard explained in a fake long suffering voice.

Beside him Paige shuddered at the image.

"You wish!" She muttered disbelievingly to him under his breath.

"Like a baby's arm holding an apple.." Magus drunkenly assured her with a saucy wink.

Further banter was cut off again by Peregrin, who didn't think it was as funny.

"See!? He's just a stinking, inappropriate drunk!" She purported.

"Now that's just a racist stereotype." Magus denied accentuating his Irish lilt, he was starting to look annoyed at the exchange. Self-consciously he did give his armpits a discrete sniff. Recoiling from what he found, Magus reluctantly nodded his head in capitulation. She did have a point on that one.

"You can't take anything serious.." Peregrin accused him in disgust at his attitude. Although that might have been from the smell that lingered on them from the last adventure. This did seem to shut the ever mouthy Magus up for once.

"Humour does appear to be one of his coping mechanisms." Makayla agreed in her usual flat voice. Damn she was creepy.

"It's what I do." Magus shrugged indifferently, the humour having finally dried up.

"Well… that might be so, but you need to curb your comments if Peregrin is getting upset, Magus. As for the alleged drinking… We've discussed that already." Unwin finally got a sentence in edgeways and tried to fulfil the minimum requirement of a manager trying to placate his team.

"In all fairness boss, it's been a rough day. We had a hard time with those Dementors." Paige added in appeal to Doit and reaching a hand down to help her mentor back up. It took all her strength.

"Dementors!" Several voices gasped, Peregrin among them. This was considered quite topical, yet controversial given a famous, unpopular boy-who-lived and a similar recent encounter.

* * *

"Ms Calamisi please…" Unwin quickly began again, trying to keep a lid on things.

"That's right!" Magus interrupted loudly, taking his feet unsteadily once more.

"A whole fucking town. Gone. Eaten by those creepy goddamn things." He hoarsely croaked taking a shaky step forward to steady himself on the Tracer's desk. Magus leaned in his face close to the plump face of Peregrin's.

"So yeah kind of a serious morning already. How was yours? Broke a nail?" He hissed cruelly. Peregrin averted her eyes from his and cringed at the acidic alcohol breath being blown in her face.

"Now if you'll excuse me." Magus quickly added before she could answer.

Ducking off to a side he leaned over the rubbish bin and became violently throwing up in it. A horrid curdled concoction of wine, beer, spirits and chocolate poured forth into the bin and flooded the office with a truly stomach churning odour. Magus gagged and coughed roughly, his body still racked with violent shivers.

Oddly it was Makayla who had come round the desk to help him stand again once he had emptied his guts in the bin.

"Come on Magus. Dawn should be back from her case soon, we'll get her to take you home huh?" She kindly suggested in her barren monotone.

"Hey, great idea! And breath mints can we find some of them too?" He drunkenly enquired, leaning heavily on the skinny women, who somehow had the strength to hold him up.

Paige felt like it was something she should have perhaps done for him, but she was barely walking straight herself. Seeing Amanda Peregrin still siting stunned at her desk Paige felt the need to apologise, even though she felt some righteousness about her mentor's outburst.

"Hey look I'm sorry about him. You know how he gets sometimes. He doesn't mean any of the jokes though." Paige explained genuinely, sinking into the empty chair at the desk. Unwin Doit had taken the full bin to go empty it somewhere far away. It was easier than trying to manage the interpersonal problems in his sometimes volatile office.

"It's fine." Peregrin muttered, sounding like it clearly wasn't.

"He is the biggest jerk in the world, but everyone round lets it slide because he is also somehow an excellent Reverser and someone upstairs owes him." She pouted.

"I did wonder how he gets away with so much, until I saw him work. But just because we have a tough job gives him no right to take it out on others." Paige pointed out, she stowed the new information about the upstairs connection for later.

"No it doesn't, but then that is just who he is; a bit of dick. Nothing will change that." The Tracer replied harshly.

"I'm sorry. He was extra dickish today, I'll talk to him." Paige assured her.

Peregrin gave a doubtful snort, which did little to dispel from the pig imagery.

"I'm sorry too though, I didn't realise there were Dementors there. Must have been terrible for Magus because of the whole Azkaban stuff." Peregrin added grimly.

"From like a job at Azkaban?" Paige sought clarification immediately.

Peregrin stared at Paige for a good hard moment as if trying to decipher something in her face.

"Did Magus seriously never tell you that he spent time in Azkaban?" She finally whispered incredulously.

* * *

Dawn found Paige moments later, ready with an oversized towel and hot chocolate.

"What the hell happened to you guys? You look like hell!" She immediately demanded, bundling up the other girl like an over protective mother hen and hustling her back to the preparation room.

A couple of unspeakables were packaging the corpse they had retrieved from the village, they barely looked up as the pair passed through.

Paige could hear the showers already running and guessed correctly that her mentor must already be in one, based off the terrible drunken singing that emanated.

Dawn led her to the bench seat and helped Paige take off her boots and coat, all her clothes were soaked through. Between bouts of shivering and burning her tongue on the hot chocolate, she managed to get out the full story to her friend as they undressed her. She had needed all the help she could get from Dawn, due to how numb her hands were.

Dawn took it all in, with her usual pensive silence and when the tale was finished, she ushered Paige into one of the showers with a towel and a change of clothes.

"What, you aren't joining us?" Paige drunkenly joked as Dawn backed out of the stall.

"Already tired persuading her. Also, there's that lesbian vibe we were talking about earlier." Magus's Irish lint carried mockingly over top the cubicle with the steam. She threw her sodden socks over at him, causing him to squeal in alarm.

It took a full 20 steamy minutes under the hot spray before Paige finally stopped shivering. Emerging from the now thick fog of steam, she cleared her throat loudly upon finding Dawn and Magus stood together in a tender embrace. Dawn was gently caressing the back of his neck and their foreheads were pressed together intimately.

On the small noise the pair broke apart seemingly reluctantly, Dawn flushed bright at the knowing smirk they were getting from Paige.

"Still cold. Sharing body heat you know?" Magus mumbled unconvincingly and not looking overly surprised, sober or embarrassed. It was a trifecta that he rarely wore after all.

"Of course." Paige sarcastically agreed.

The three of them slumped to seats on the hard wooden changing room bench. It was a familiar tired scene; the two Reversers beaten and exhausted after a harrowing mission and the caring Obliviator, who picked up the pieces and mothered them afterwards.

Something raw and vulnerable still seemed to shine through on the young man's face for a moment though and he drew the dark blue hoodie he had donned tighter around himself.

"No seriously, I can't seem to get warm again. Fucking Dementors." He hollowly cursed and Paige reached over to find the skin of his face still cold to the touch. Not only that but his skin strangely seemed to leach the warmth from her own and she quickly withdrew her hand.

"That's not right." She murmured at his response.

"The longer you have spent around those monsters the worse they affect you and the longer it takes to bounce back." Magus explained stonily averting his eyes.

There was a long silence in which Dawn topped up everyone's hot chocolate. Magus took a moment to Irish his own up, having to fight her hands and disapproving frown to do so.

"Magus? Why were you in Azkaban?" Paige blurted out, breaking the silence. She was brimming with alcohol and curiosity; a bad combination, but she knew she would regret it later if she didn't get to the bottom of the mystery.

* * *

Her mentor gave her a dire appraising look and shared a hesitant glance at Dawn, who only nodded in support. She took up one of his hands in both of hers; apparently the cold didn't bother her anyway.

"Got 3 months for misuse of magic." He eventually hissed, a complete change in mood coming over him. It was an odd combination; shame, sadness and an intense fury. It rolled off of him in waves like heat, making Paige regret asking immediately.

"I'm sorry.." She started but he cut her off abruptly.

"I don't like to talk about it, but I guess you should know." He decided grimly.

"For the whole story to make sense though you probably need to know about the shit that lead up to it.." He continued with a deep sigh. Magus stood up again and started to talk, but his voice seemed to betray him and give out.

"Fuck it, this has got to be easier." He reasoned in defeat and placed his wand to his temple, squeezing his eyes shut. Paige half expected him to blow his brains out, given his odd mood.

Instead he slowly and painfully dragged out a long wisp of straggly silver, like it was some horrible tapeworm. With the same disgust and hatred he flicked the wisp into one of the grotty bathroom sinks. The near invisible runes on the surface of the ancient bathroom fixture glowed into life and Paige noticed that the silver thread had not simply disappeared down the plug hole. Instead the basin seemed to plugged itself and filled with a mercury-like substance. The liquid seemed to glow lightly, but the majesty of it was offset by the fact that there was still some vomit around the rim, presumably also left there by her mentor.

The archaic sink had somehow transformed into a pensieve; albeit, possibly the filthiest looking one in history.

Magus stood by the sink expectantly until the two girls joined him. Dawn looked almost frightened by his actions. Weakly and wordlessly he gestured at the basin and held out a hand for each of them.

"Are you sure?" Dawn apprehensively asked him, tentatively taking up the offered hand again.

"We never talk about it and I'd prefer you see it as I did, rather than just hear stories from others." He explained with great effort.

Paige suddenly felt like an intruder on this moment and she did not take up his hand. Magus looked expectantly at her and noticing her hesitation, he turned his palm up in offer.

"You've earned the answers to your questions, Ravenclaw. They are answers though, I'm not strong enough to tell." He shamefully admitted.

"Okay." Paige solemnly accepted his hand this time. It was cold and pale still, like marble or carved ice.

It was a sign of how serious the events were to her uncharacteristically sombre mentor that he did not make some threesome joke.

The world tinted and shifted on its axis and the very ungolden trio dived into the pensieve sink…


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N-** Bam! Another chapter, hopefully one that explains a few mysteries.

Big shout out to **jadely31** for her review; I wanted to stretch out the car chase a bit, but in the end was quite happy with it as a desperate fleeing device instead..and yes Paige sucks at driving haha.

Still working on the next few chapters, but let me know what you guys think about the pensieve idea for showing some of the history; I hate having to do big explain chapters among characters instead..

Cheers.

 ** _Grey._**

* * *

Paige was disorientated for a moment by the faded colours and dreamlike quality of things around. The firm grip had released her own and Paige saw that her body was semi-translucent as were the two people beside her. It was after all her first pensieve trip so it took her a moment to realise where she was.

She was at the Kings Cross station having apparently just disembarked the Hogwarts express. It must have been for Christmas break because the whole station was decked with holly and mistletoe, a tall decorated tree took up one corner of the atrium.

Students were ducking and weaving through the crowd to find their parents, a familiar scene.

A surly looking teenager pushed his way onto the platform last of all. The whole right hand side of his face was purple with aged bruising and his right eye seemed slightly drooped in comparison to the other. His light brown hair was long and curled slightly at the tips which nipped at his shoulders. It took Paige a moment to realise she was watching a teenage Magus McIntyre.

His sullen face however seemed to light up as he caught sight of someone waiting for him on the platform.

"Dad!" He laughed in unbridled joy as he dashed forward and pulled his father into a hug.

Mr McIntyre had the same serious looking eyes as his son, but there was a certain hollowness to his eyes even as his face split into a wide grin.

"Jeez boy, what happened to your face?" He demanded after he pushed his son back to examine the bruising. The two were the same height now and that seemed to surprise the man as he took in the appearance of his near adult son.

Teen Magus shrugged nonchalantly.

"Stupid broom sports, got knocked off my bloody broom and into this gnarly tree." He explained with a ridiculous snort.

"Your mother is going to be right pissed at you.." McIntyre the senior informed him with a grimace.

"Hey I would of sent you guys a message, but you know; the stupid owl problem." Magus defended himself.

For the first time he properly took in his father's appearance too and frowned.

"You are looking skinny." He noted. As it was pointed out to Paige, she noticed it too. In the one photo she had seen of Mr McIntyre, he had a robust man, the embodiment of strength and the genetic herald for the physique Magus currently had.

Paige caught the suspicious tone in his voice, it was the same tone he used to enquire about mysterious cleaning efforts in their cubicle or 'misplaced' bottles of alcohol.

Mr McIntyre laughed, but a strained one and rubbed at the back of his head.

"Your bloody mother and some new diet of hers you know?" He dismissed his son with a chuckle.

"But you are looking strong, Boy. You must be keeping up with the training program we started over the summer." Mr McIntyre commented partly in way of a distraction as he led his son back towards the waiting car.

Magus did not seem dissuaded and clearly continued to ponder on the issue.

* * *

The vision faded out and was replaced with another one.

Paige didn't recognise this one; it was a stark white office with several diplomas on the wall and several diagrams of the human body.

Magus was seated this time, a little older than he had been in the last memory because his bruising had vanished. His hair was down past his shoulders and he wore a dull blank expression. Beside him sat a short matronly looking woman with plenty of smile lines, but she was the furthest from smiling now. Instead she sobbed openly against the shoulder of Mr McIntyre. Paige reasoned that this had to be Magus's mother.

Across from them sat a well-dressed older gentleman.

"I'm terribly sorry Patrick, the tests have come back and it is as we feared." He told them in a grave voice.

"How long?" The emaciated man asked in a dry voice.

The doctor opposite of him grimly opened his hands in resignation in front of his body.

"I honestly can't say. At this stage I would say a couple of years at best. We don't know very much about this particular condition or how best to treat it." He conceded.

Patrick McIntyre seemed to cower at these words and leaned back into his wife.

It had the opposite effect on young Magus, he sat forward to the very edge of his chair. His face was set in a familiar determination and his icy eyes flashed intensely.

"Tell me everything you know about my father's condition.." He demanded coolly of the doctor.

* * *

The scene faded again and slowly came back.

This time it was the library at Hogwarts, a place Paige was intimately familiar with. She had spent hundreds of hours poring over the various titles housed on the shelves. At first it had been by herself, but then when Lawrence became her friend and eventual boyfriend, they spend a large portion of there time there. Although Paige was embarrassed to admit it, the library was actually where she had plucked up her courage and shared her first kiss with him. Lost in her own memories for a moment, Paige quickly refocused on the memory she was currently standing in.

An older more intense Magus was huddled over a thick textbook and scribbling notes with a pencil. The various titles littered across his table gave Paige a reasonable idea of the focus of his research;

' _Magical Medicine; A Healer's Guide'_

 _'Magical Malladies and Their Cures'_

 _'The Advanced Healers Almanac'_

But there were also muggle textbooks there beside him too.

 _'Pathology'_

 _'Gray's Anatomy'_

 _'The Comprehensive Treatment of Cancer'_

Single-minded in his focus Magus didn't even look up as a pretty young black haired witch asked him something and he simply shrugged her off. Paige heard a snort from someone else in the memory with her, but did not turn to see.

The books stacked up around him like a fort or a prison as time was condensed in the memory to show its passage. Someone put a plate of food down in front of him and he studiously ignored it, turning a page instead.

* * *

A fleeting memory passed of Magus in the owlery being swooped and divebombed by a pack of owls. Paige was alarmed to see the aggression of the usually peaceful birds and was determined to ask her mentor more about the issue later. Eventually, the young Magus was forced to retreat under their attack, the unsent letter still clutched in his hand. Defeat and frustration heavy on his face.

* * *

Another memory drifted in of Magus again in the library, this time doing what he always seemed to end up doing eventually; fighting. As Paige watched, the Teen Magus threw an advanced potions book into a tall Slytherin boy, where it caught him in the throat and he dropped immediately. A second teen caught a front kick square in the stomach and disappeared into a toppling bookcase. Finally with his face swelling from a stinging jinx and his legs wobbling uncontrollably, Magus wrestled a thick muggle medicine book from a furious looking thickset wizard. Paige immediately recognised the flat face of another ministry worker, the one Magus disliked; Angus. He had thick curly red hair at this point and Magus clutched a handful of it and used it to smash the owners head against a nearby desk.

Madam Prince, the vulture like Librarian shrieked bloody murder at the group and moments later send all of them hurling from the room with a furious wave of her wand.

Paige had to cover her mouth to prevent herself laughing at that sight.

Once more the scene changed and Magus snuck up around the bend to Dumbledore's office and began reading off a list of password guesses to the guarding Gargoyle.

Puzzled by the last memory, Paige turned to the real Magus for an answer and saw him still standing in place, Dawn held his hand still and a tendon was drawn taut in his jaw. She too wore an unusual expression and seemed troubled by the images.

The light faded out around them and they stood in the darkness of the memory montage for a moment before it began to change.

"One more stop." Magus finally said in a cold voice.

* * *

The scene became that of one large room Paige had never seen. It appeared to be a cavernous wooden courtroom.

In a large over watching balcony sat several dozen witches and wizards. Paige recognised some of the seat holders from other departments or places. Most noticeable by presence rather than stature was her old headmaster; Albus Dumbledore. His long silver beard flowed down to the seat in front of him and his quirky hat partially obscuring the view of the man behind him.

 _He must have been a dick to sit behind at these sort of things_ , Paige thought with an out of sorts smirk. _Worst seat in the house,_ she decided, watching the frustrated wizard craning his neck to see what was happening on the floor. It was times like this that she realised just how much she had been corrupted by her mentor in only a few short months.

The gathered court ceased their conversation because now things were happening on the floor where the three invisible visitors were watching from. A young man had just been led into the room from a door behind them and sat in a chair facing the court.

With no point of reference to time, Paige could only assume it was perhaps several years after the events of the previous memory. She based this appearance alone.

The young Magus McIntyre sat uncomfortably in a chair surrounded by a chamber of uniformed witches and wizards. His face was sunken and hollow as if malnourished or having missed a lot of sleep. Teen Magus had been sporting hair to his shoulders, but this older version had it even shorter then he wore it now. He was the skinniest and palest Paige had seen him at any time, but somehow still possessing that indomitable strength that radiated from his eyes. Various cuts and scrapes had been obtained since he was last seen at school, some had barely healed to scars and a large one on his forearm still appeared raw and prominent.

Ahead of him in one of the key seats Cornelius Fudge, sat looking no less comfortable than Magus. He bore no such scars visible like Magus, but he rubbed one of his legs as if it ached and looked just as haggard. Awkwardly the minister cleared his throat and called the chamber into silence.

"I officially call this hearing to order. Magus McIntyre you are charged with gross misuse of magic, in the act of performing magic on a muggle. How do you plead?"

"Not guilty. Just try and fucking prove it!" Magus snarled back at the court in barely contained rage. He eyed the two wizards on security either side of him, as if daring them to try and step closer. The chamber occupants muttered in outrage at his language.

"You deny the charges?" One of the wizarding council enquired in surprise.

"Of course I do, they are bullshit!" He snarled back at the witch who asked, causing her to look quite affronted.

A very old wizard spoke up from near the front, his robes were in a St Mungo's shade of green and perfectly pressed. His beard unlike Dumbledore's was short and impeccably neat in the grey tapering point it formed into. He had a heavily lined face and intelligent piercing green eyes that scrutinized the young man seated in front of him.

"Are you claiming that you did not use magic on a muggle?" He asked in a slow silky voice.

"He was my father.." Magus hissed in a dangerous voice barely over a whisper.

"So you did use magic on him?" The same older wizard eagerly pressed, a smirk tugging at his thin lips.

Magus didn't answer and instead stood and glared at the man who had asked it.

"Mr McIntyre, might I remind you that are under oath here." One of the council spoke up to break the staring contest.

"Dr McIntyre." He snapped back in correction.

"I did not use magic on my father." The young McIntyre added slowly not breaking eye contact with his accuser.

"So you expect this court to believe that you used none of your magical knowledge to prolong your terminally ill father's life?" A second portly wizard seated beside the first questioner spoke up. He too was wearing the same green as his neighbour. He was bald and clean shaven, giving him the appearance of an overgrown baby, albeit a baby before they get cute. He was still in the early mutant potato looking baby phase in comparative appearance.

The court fell silent as it awaited his response.

"I did however use magic to strengthen the effect of his muggle medical treatments and to help relieve the associated symptoms he had with it." Magus conceded to an overwhelming outbreak of discussion in the raised seats.

"Silence!" Fudge called, eventually quelling the uproar.

"Under subsection 14, clause 3 of the Misuse of Magic Act 1908; it is an offense to experiment with magic for the purpose of use in medicine without prior approval from the Healer's Regulation Board. You are aware of this Mr McIntyre?" The portly man said again, this time with an air of smugness about it. He placed his emphasis on the mister.

"Doctor. McIntyre." He corrected them once again with pride.

"Your illegitimate muggle qualification gained through trickery and sorcery was not recognised by the Healers council." The older wizard silkily reminded him.

"Despite being authenticated by the university and the muggle liaison office, who approved the magical alteration required to gain entry to the medical school and the accelerated course load I was able to undertake." Magus replied with an edge and equal smugness. Their was a dangerous amount of pride coming from the man on trial.

"So you will use your my official title, Healer Atrial." He finished firmly.

"My apologies, **Doctor** McIntyre. Were you aware that you were in breach of the Misuse of Magic Act?" This time his title was used as condescendingly as possible by the baby wizard.

"I am aware that your fucking group of dinosaurs shitcanned my proposal on the combined use of muggle and magical treatment of malady." Magus growled back between gritted teeth. There were a few scandalised gasps at his rudeness and Fudge had to again call for silence.

"Your outlandish proposal was rightly declined approval for further research by this council!" The elderly wizard with the silky voice yelled back in outrage.

"Muggle medicine lends no favour to our healing magic and to even suggest it could is preposterous!" The portly healer agreed sternly.

"How do we know if no one is allowed to investigate it, Healer Mitral?" Magus shot back with vengeance.

"When did higher learning and cross pollination of knowledge become a taboo subject?" He carried on opening his arms in appeal to the audience.

"Can our esteemed High Healer Atrial explain to the court how the heart is made to beat, without using the word 'magic'?" Magus challenged the sneering old wizard.

"Enough." Fudge barked as the chamber fell into controversy again. He was getting damn sick of having to silence the chamber after every inciting comment.

"We are getting off topic. Dr McIntyre, respectfully I must ask you to stick to the questions." He ordered as politely as he could. Paige thought that Fudge was actually showing a lot more respect for Magus than he usually got.

Magus bit down his reply with some effort and merely folded his arms formidably.

"In providing therapy for my father I occasionally attempted to combine elements of magical and muggle medicine." Magus finally spoke.

"And as a result breached the ruling of the Healers Board." The high healer finished triumphantly.

"And as a result created a potentially viable new combined treatment regime for several disease processes including.." Magus countered only to be cut off once more by the second Healer on the council.

"It can't have been very effective if your muggle father died." Mitral the portly, coldly spat in interruption.

* * *

Magus bowed his head at these words.

Before he suddenly exploded into violence, hurling the small table in front of him up at the pair of Healers.

It shattered before it could hit them, as a ripple of energy prevented it from making contact. There was apparently some sort of barrier protecting the council from physical assault. The whole council recoiled in shock at the attack however.

Fudge banged his gavel until the silly little hammer snapped in his hands, trying to gain order. He fumbled with his wand to repair it.

Magus's enraged yells were drowned out in the general chaos as several security wizards tried to restrain him. The chains on the chair jangled angrily at him, but couldn't reach his wrists.

"He was getting better, you sons of bitches! Until you locked me up and prevented me from carrying on!" Magus screamed in accusation. Both his arms were being held by security wizards, but he wheeled about and gave one of them a vicious head-butt for their trouble. Turning towards the other arm, he drew his second captor into a raised forearm and the man dropped to the floor gagging and clutching his throat.

Silver ropes quickly erupted from the floor and bound Magus though before he could make more than three steps towards the raised seating. As the disorder became to die down, Paige noticed the Healer's looked pleased with the outburst rather than shocked.

"It was working, my father was responding to the treatments. He was beginning to recover when I was taken into custody!" Magus spat in disgust at the pair, this time calmer, broken with anguish. This statement was again met by hushed murmurs and the grins faded from the two Healers.

One of the silver tendrils forced its way across Magus's mouth, effectively silencing the young rogue for once as he futilely fought the magical restraints.

One of the witches of the assembled council turned to question the two healers.

"Is there any truth to his claims? Is it possible that a muggle was responding to magical medicine?"

The two aged healers looked affronted by the question.

"None. What so ever." The rotund of the pair quickly attested.

"But the Medicine Man was under oath." Another member piped up uncertainly.

"The ramblings of a half squib psychopath." Atrial derisively dismissed the incarcerated young man.

"In light of his medical misadventures, he should really be struck off as a muggle doctor to prevent something similar occurring again." Atrial proposed.

Magus struggled in vain to swear through his gagged mouth.

"It will be put to a vote." Fudge resolutely declared and the majority of hands raised in favour. Muggle medicine was clearly still seem as rather barbaric and a wizards interest in it was usually seen as a sign of poor mental health, a generalisation that was perpetuated by the pureblood ruling hierarchy. It was at the least seen as an eccentricity and that was how most of the community had always viewed Magus anyhow.

"Motion is carried." He declared quickly and refusing to meet the eyes of the condemned. The minister was quite widely known to be dismissive of most things muggle, like much of the council.

"Azkaban should settle that temper of his too." The rotund Mitral suggested cruelly and staring pointedly at Fudge.

To Paige's surprise, she noticed that Fudge seemed hesitant, even regretful about having to carry out that sentencing.

"Now, given… Mr McIntyre's stellar record of achievement at work and in light of his recent awarding of the Order of Merlin 2nd class, we should consider a lessened punishment." Fudge suggested timidly to much animated discussion.

It was the voice of Albus Dumbledore that carried over the rest.

"The boy has been brash and pushed the laws of magic, but he is no criminal." He said in a quiet voice although it seemed to overpower everyone else in the room.

"He has broken the law." The head Healer Atrial snippily reminded the wizened headmaster.

"By a council that convened against him and his unconventional ideas perhaps." Albus evenly replied.

"Surely you have no love for the boy after what he did to you Dumbledore?" The portly Healer Mitral enquired incredulously.

"A misunderstanding I assure you. Magus left Hogwarts entirely under his own volition, not expelled as some had purported." The headmaster airily replied, but there was a hint of defiance to his words.

The shrewd old wizard turned his attention back to the most important man in the chamber; Fudge.

"What say you Cornelius? Wasn't it just last week you said that you owe the boy your life? As I believe so do several other witches and wizards, some in this room."

"I do recall saying something similar." Fudge agreed slowly, he seemed almost grateful to Dumbledore for his intervention.

"The best Reverser the department has seen in decades, a genuine hero of the Gringotts Riot were your exact words I think, Minister." Dumbledore finished with a wry twinkle in his blue eyes.

A very gnarled looking Auror piped up from the other side of Fudge.

"It doesn't do, to go locking up ya heroes, Minister. Never know when you might be in need of one."

Another voice spoke up from the back.

"The boy broke the law, he must be punished for it!"

"He was trying to do the right thing!" A small witch voiced her defence.

"He's a nutter!" Someone else exclaimed loudly,

Arguments began again throughout the chamber and Fudge called for silence a final time.

"Those in favour of upholding further charges against the accused?" He called loudly.

"Those for dismissal of further charges?"

It was a near split on the jury, although it fell just on the side of punishment by a couple of votes.

Magus had slumped in his bonds, but he raised his head to look pleadingly at the man who was to decide his fate.

"While your intentions as always were noble, you did break the law and go against a ruling from the Healers board. I'm sorry, but their decree must be upheld. In light of your recent efforts and merit however, Magus McIntyre I sentence to you a reduced sentence of three months in Azkaban!"

Magus slumped in his restraints, visibly trembling with anger and fear. The long silver tentacles passed him down to the ground and withdrew till they only bound his hands behind his back. The guards had returned warily and sporting injuries from last time, they cautiously took hold of his arms once more. On finding no more fight in the young man, they became rough once more and violently dragged him from his holding area.

Magus simply let them drag him away, silent and seething, but comprehensively defeated.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N-** Long time, no update. Had a super big exam to do, it had a 25% pass rate! But I nailed it, so yay more qualifications and spare time than I know what to do with. Expect more chapters I guess. Enjoy.

 _ **Grey 'Smashed It' Southpaw.**_

* * *

The scene once more began to fade to darkness and Paige found herself back in the work bathroom. There was a moment of disorientation in emerging from the Pensieve.. She blinked several times to clear the lingering images from her head, before turning to look at Magus. His jaw was still clenched hard and his eyes solemnly closed. More than that though, he looked utterly exhausted; as if the effort of attending the memories had been enough to wipe out the last of his reserves.

When he eventually opened his eyes, he was pointedly looking anywhere, but at the two of them.

"Well now you know.." He murmured weakly.

"And knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe!" Magus half-heartedly joked, while sounding as though he had just finished swallowing stinksap. Paige had no idea what a G.I. Joe was and merely looked at him quizzically. Knowing him it was probably a cocktail of some kind.

"Come on, let's get you home." Dawn kindly suggested, having not let go of his hand, she started to lead him out. Obediently he followed without complaint for once and Paige helped her with him. By this point Magus was stumbling heavily and refused to look where he was going. His head kept lolling to either side lazily and he somehow managed to doze off several times in mid-step.

Neither of the girls were confident enough on their side-along apparation, so they were stuck walking. Or staggering as the case might be. The three left the ministry on foot, making for Paige's place first since it was closest.

Dawn insisted on making sure Paige got home safely as well, before taking care of Magus. While perhaps somewhat unnecessary, she did feel reassured for the effort. They also planned to let Magus rest up there for a while until he was well enough to walk back to his own place or apparate.

To Paige it seemed like a good plan.

Until she remembered that her boyfriend was probably at home waiting for her and that it was impossible that her friends would not end up meeting him and under less than ideal circumstances.

This was a fact she only realised when they stumbled in her front door, to the immense surprise of Lawrence.

"Heeey Lawrence!" Paige slurred in a mixed dread and drunken happiness. The pensieve had been a sobering experience, but back in the real word she was clumsy and giggly once more. Paige couldn't actually recall being drunk around Lawrence like she was now, but it was also just so amazing to come home and find him there.

"Why Paige, you are home early and you brought guests!" He noted evenly, pushing a long blonde lock out of his eyes to better inspect them. Dubiously he eyed her misfit friends. He unfolded his rangy frame to stand from one of the chairs, where he had been reading a thick book on runes.

Dawn swooped in for the save, as it often seemed was the case.

"Hi there! I'm Dawn and you must be Lawrence; Paige has told us so much about you." She enthusiastically introduced herself. Dawn gave her shoulder a nudge, to displace Magus's head where he had dozed off again in the lull of their movement.

"Huh what?" He snapped awake, looking around in disorientation before catching sight of Lawrence, who had just received a large hug from Paige.

"You gotta be the Rookie's boy right? Liam was it?" Magus drunkenly guessed incorrectly and unsteadily pushing off of Dawn to hold out his own gnarled hand in offer of a handshake.

Lawrence looked unimpressed at the hand offered, but accepted it anyway. From his grimace the grip was harder than he would have liked or expected to receive, Magus took no small pleasure from this even in his exhausted state.

"It's Lawrence actually." He was corrected stonily. The teen's handsome face flashed briefly with annoyance, but it passed in fleeting moment.

"And you must be Magus McIntyre." Lawrence astutely figured, taking in the dishevelled looking Reverser in his barely conscious state. His energy had been drained from the Dementor encounter, but had seriously plummeted even further after the pensieve.

"The one and the only!" Magus burped loudly and wearily sunk into one of the chairs at the table.

Paige looked nervously between her boyfriend and her friends. As far as first meetings went, it was going rather poorly, but then to be fair; Magus hadn't punched anyone. Yet.

* * *

"Would anyone like some tea?" Paige hastily offered as a truce and also because her mentor really seemed like he could use something before he properly passed out.

"Or perhaps something stronger?" Lawrence added raising his eyebrows at the strong smell of booze that lingered on the group.

"They battled some Dementors this morning, the alcohol was part of offsetting their effects." Dawn quickly explained, moving over to help Paige with the kettle.

At the reminder of the Dementors, Paige whipped out a large bar of Honeydukes chocolate from the top of her cupboard and dropped it on the table in front of her mentor.

"Dementors? Surely not. There should be no need; they are all under Ministry control." Lawrence objected in confusion, his brow creasing.

"Well funny thing that. Found at least two munching down on this little one-horse town near the border." Magus mumbled to the piece of chocolate he had broken off. He idly trotted a square of the candy across the table, as if it was the single equine occupant of the town in question. The short gallop predictably ended up in his mouth, which was still quite crowded from the first piece.

Lawrence reluctantly took a seat opposite him and shot him a sceptical glance. Or perhaps it was disgusted, Magus wasn't all that great on interpreting expressions.

"And I tell ya Larry, they didn't seem that tame and controlled when they were trying to gimme a kiss." Magus coldly told him through a thick mouthful, which took away from some of his gravitas.

A cup broke in the kitchen as it slipped from Dawn's hands. She was over at the table in an instant, her fingers took a vice-like grip on one of his ears.

"You left that part out of your story.." She scolded him fiercely in concern.

"I didn't want you to worry. Hell, I can't have that much soul for it to suck anyway." He protested, wide awake now with pain as he tried to take pressure off his ear.

"You get used to their domestic bickering." Paige assured her concerned looking boyfriend and placed a cup of tea down in front of him. White, with no sugar just how he liked it; quite plain, which was how Paige used to describe herself. Getting in a firefight with Death Eaters made her feel like perhaps she was less of a boring person now than she had been at school. Never in her moments of dreaming in the library about her career after Hogwarts, had she imagined it would involve dueling.

She returned with three more cups and conjured an extra chair for herself and Dawn.

Magus took one sip of the tea and promptly spat it up.

"Gad! What is this rubbish? Tea? Are you trying to poison me woman?" He wrinkled his nose ungratefully in revulsion at the pale drink in his cup. Magus might have literally been the only wizard in Britain who hated tea.

"Excuse me?" Lawrence demanded at his rudeness. He was starting to build a dislike for the crass young wizard his girlfriend seemed stuck with.

Paige simply rolled her eyes at his tirade, Dawn reached for his ear again in disapproval, although she should have known better than to make him tea. Sadly, Paige had little to chose from in the way of drink options.

"I'm sorry, It is just that I can't drink boiled garbage with milk." Magus fussily explained.

With a dash of his wand, the tea darkened ominously and began giving off a strong odour of burnt peppermint and kerosene instead.

Dawn only reluctantly took her seat, she looked as if she would love to stay standing and inflict more pain on Magus for leaving out parts of the story and for his general lack of manners.

For Lawrence's benefit and distraction, Paige became recounting the thrilling tale of their morning.

She was almost finished when there was a knock on the door, she stood to get it, but Lawrence was there first. He sent her a winning grin that said 'I got this'.

Paige sat back down appreciatively, opposite her Magus had dozed off again, his head lolling adorably onto Dawn's shoulder. A fact she didn't seem displeased about, except for the dribbling. Quietly she finished off the last of his peppermint schnapps.

Lawrence went straight to the door on his long bandy legs and immediately moved to open it without even checking who might be coming to call.

A mistake as it turned out.

Suddenly the door exploded in with a dazzling flash of light and Lawrence was blasted back off his feet.

* * *

The noiseless entry indicated to Paige that the intruder must have used _Muffliato_ on the door prior to blasting it open. A trick she had learned through hard experience that would effectively silence an explosive entry. It was little insights like this that oddly found light in her brain as it kicked into overdrive at the oncoming attack. In the adrenaline dump when time seemed to slow, the brain latches on to odd details as it did now.

Paige watched Lawrence fall in slow motion in front of her and a scream involuntarily escaped her throat. Her wand was in her hand before she even realised it.

The combat training she had been putting in with the others paid off, as her adrenalized body seemed to naturally flow into the right motions. Without even thinking she had sunk to her knee, to reduce her target profile and fired off several stunners into the doorway. At the same time Dawn had pulled the lethargic Magus from his chair and tipped the table over to provide some cover for them.

Paige ducked in behind them to take cover and continued blasting over the top of the table, now joined by Dawn in her counterattack.

Magus had drawn his wand, but struggled to keep his eyes open, barely fighting off his fatigue. He sat slumped against the table, his head barely held up. His eyes that were usually bright with humour and determination were dull and unfocused.

In an eventual moment of inspiration he unsteadily pointed his wand at the stairway and muttered something.

Paige took stock of their situation: Lawrence lay immobile in the no-man's land between the door and their makeshift barricade. Taking cover all around the doorway was at least 3 masked men, one was unmoving on the ground felled by Paige's stunner.

They took it in turns poking their heads out from cover and firing spells at the two and a half gathered heroes. Attack and counterattack. Holes blasted in the walls and surrounding furniture. Spells flew fast and thick, leaving the smell of burning ozone behind.

Behind the table it was only Dawn and Paige returning any semblance of defence. Her usually valiant mentor sat slumped against the makeshift barrier with his wand hanging weakly from its lanyard. It appeared that he may have dozed off once more, incredible as it seemed mid firefight.

A bolt of cold panic ran through Paige and the spell caught in her throat. She had been in a few scrapes since joining as a Reverser, but with the exception of the mornings events, she had always had Magus there to help her. The bare escape that morning was not all of her doing or plan either if she was completely honest.

Unexpectedly, something small and light blue came clattering up the hallway, smashing into one of the attacking Death Eaters on its way. At formidable speed it slammed into Magus's chest, jerking him awake.

It was lucky it did too, because it was followed by a dark green bottle with a German looking label.

Paige turned for a split second to see her mentor hastily drinking back a Jagerbomb that he had skillfully made from mixing the Jägermeister and the can of Redbull.

It took him a few minutes, but he seemed to shake off his stupor a bit and the old cunning ice seemed to shine in his eyes once more.

"That's better. Let's do this!" He croaked and flicked off his first spell of the fight. It missed by a wide margin.

* * *

"Here's the plan." Magus shouted hoarsely to the other two over the din.

"Too weak to fight them, Dawn and I will distract them. Paige, go get Lando and put him somewhere safe." He laid out his idea.

"Distract them how?" Dawn wanted to know, but Magus ignored her for once.

Something sizzled overhead and a voice called out over it.

"Throw your wands out here, then follow after them. We don't want to hurt you, we just want to talk." A rough voice ordered.

"Yeah right! And Hagrid has never tried to shag a centaur.." Magus snorted derisively from their position of cover.

"Man, way too tired for this shit right now.." He grumbled picking up the green Jägermeister bottle once more. He tapped it with his wand before lazily tossed the glass vessel into the open doorway, where it spectacularly smashed, splattering its contents everywhere. Including on a few of the figures firing at them from the doorway.

With another laboured flick of his wrist over top of the makeshift barrier, Magus sent a tiny jet of bluebell flames after the bottle.

The doorway ignited with a whoosh, flames leaping into life and erupting everywhere the flammable liquid had splashed.

Someone in the doorway shrieked as a tongue of flame leapt to life on their saturated robe and quickly began to spread. In panic they fled back down the corridor, trailing smoke and screams.

The other fighters drew back from the doorway and the fierce flames that assailed them. Each furiously tended to the small fires that had caught on their own clothes or long hair, before looking to extinguish the blaze that blocked their entrance.

"Consider them distracted.." Magus informed the girls and he slowly pushed himself to his feet. Arduously, he stumbled towards the flaming doorway, too tired to even seek cover on the way.

Paige didn't stay to watch this though, instead she sprinted from behind the table and slid across the floor to end up beside her fallen boyfriend. With her heart in her throat, she made to quickly assess him with the temporary lull created by the wall of flames.

With an animal grunt of effort, she turned Lawrence onto his side and was incredibly relieved to observe the rise and fall of his chest. He was alive, apparently just unconscious with a deep gash and bruise above his left eye, marring his golden good looks.

Paige gave a drag of her wand and it sent him sliding along the floor and back behind the table out of sight. With some protection for him she turned back to see how the others were holding out against the attackers,

As she watched, Magus stopped and stacked up on the doorway to plan his next move, the flames in front of him were now receding.

With a flick of his wand he levitated the stunned villain in the doorway, who had narrowly avoided the fire, so that his unconscious form now blocked the portal. His comrades swore in confusion and frustration as Magus stumbled into the hovering man, driving his shoulder in hard. Seeing what his plan was, Dawn sprinted to his side and helped him shunt the hovering human shield out. The unconscious death eater now unwittingly blocked his friends from casting while he was also used to shove them back out of the doorway and into the corridor behind it.

Paige had rejoined Lawrence at this time and brought him back round with an _Inervate._ At the sound of a yell, she turned just in time to see the Death Eaters lose concern for their friend's wellbeing. A spell caught the obstructing unconscious man full on in the face and all but decapitated the hapless fellow as they started firing spells, regardless of the collateral damage. A second spell shot by the body and caught Dawn square in the stomach and sent her tumbling back into the apartment.

Harming Dawn however awoke a demon in Magus; one that the Death Eaters would come to regret.

"Help her!" Magus pleaded with Paige, his desperation finding her eyes easily, before it was overcome by a steely rage that she had never witnessed before. It was as though his body had been injected with steel, flushing out any previous tiredness. With stiff braced legs he stumped forward like an automaton, his wand clutched like the weapon it was.

As she slid back to Dawn's side, the angle allowed Paige to see down the hall and the devastation her mentor unleashed.

Magus's wand rapped the corpse in front of him and with a whisper he flung it furiously down the hall at its ex-friends. The headless body smacked into the three wizards and in a moment of disgusted confusion they found the bleeding mass had adhered to them. A permanent sticking charm now meant that their dead bleeding colleague was now tangled among them, glued to arms, legs and to one unfortunate wizard's neck. Horribly adhered, each fighter found themselves greatly restricted in their motions and completely unable to accurately aim a wand. Understandably they started to freak out, especially when the recently dead body began to slosh kerosene instead of blood, courtesy of the furious transfiguring wizard before them.

Magus batted aside a desperately raised wand and mercilessly flicked a second wandtip of fire onto the horrible congealed mass of doused struggling limbs.

With a horrified set of screams that defied any silencing or muffling spell, the mass of three wizards ignited brilliantly into a bluebell fireball. The screams were punctuated by the spit and crackle as heat burst and split the skin of the unfortunate villains. With one last disgusted glare at the burning abomination, Magus gave the whole thing a firm kick in the center, sending it tumbling down the stairs, a trail of dotted flames in its wake.

Turning on his heel, Magus noticed one more body in the hall.

Having fallen victim to an early bodybinding curse and with his mask recently dislodged.

Noel Nazarine watched Magus approach with terrified wide eyes and paralyzed limbs.

* * *

Finding the rest of the hallway clear, Magus clutched the petrified man by his throat and threw him into the flat. With a further stout kick he landed the thug over to near where Paige knelt providing aid to Dawn and the slowly rousing Lawrence.

"You!" Paige accused furiously, leaping to her feet and brandishing her wand in his direction.

Magus seemed to have found some of his calm again after giving Dawn a cursory inspection and just finding a few broken ribs. Her hand on his face reassuring him that she was fine, had dampened some of the burning rage he had carried. The rest he had kicked down the stairs moments earlier.

Now it was his turn to reign in his student.

With a gentle push he cleared Paige away from their prisoner and he instead started the questioning.

"I killed your friends." He simply stated, wearily giving a cursory wave to the smoke ascending the stairway and leaking in through their open door. The terrible acrid smell of burning hair was carried up the hall with the smoke. It was a horrid scent that none present would ever forget.

"Why shouldn't I kill you too?" Magus demanded impatiently, his eyes flashing dangerously again.

He lifted the bodybind so the man could answer him.

"Please, I didn't want to come here." Noel insisted on the verge of panic. All defiance or bravado had left him at the sound of the tortured screams of his friends.

"Yet you did and very nearly became a corpse for your trouble." Paige sneered still looking to hex the shit out of the criminal.

"So why did you come for us?" Magus growled fiercely, the scar across his cheek taking on an even more menacing appearance in the flickering of the flames.

"Because you two have been making too much noise, threatening to expose his works by ending up in the wrong places at the wrong time."

"His?" Lawrence asked in puzzlement having just joined the interrogation and casting worried glances at both Paige and Magus. He was also rather distressed about how the room was inexplicably filling with smoke. Was everyone else just cool with that idea or what?

Nevarine cringed as if he thought someone was going to say his name.

"Voldemort." Dawn quietly breathed from behind them in a pained whisper and the junior Death Eater recoiled like he had been whipped.

"His secrecy is precarious at the moment, already there are those who would have him exposed and open war. He seeks to silence those that uncover too much before he is ready." Noel blabbered, also becoming increasingly concerned by the growing smoke in the apartment.

There were more pressing things for him to worry about though. Magus moved forward and pointed his wand at the young thugs face, the tip fell right in line with one of his gaudy lip piercings.

"What were your orders?" Magus demanded coldly of the skin head.

"He only meant for us to threaten you, no one was supposed to get killed!" Noel protested vehemently.

"You mean none of your people were supposed to get killed!" Paige accused him and brought her own wand around to join her mentor's. It was a rare thing that the pair were unison on anything.

"No honestly, we were just going to rough you up a bit, frighten you into keeping your mouths shut." Nevarine insisted looking at Paige imploringly.

"And how did that work out for you? Do I look frightened?" Magus roared over the increasing crackle of flames, with a whip of his wrist he pulled his wand away. A gout of blood followed it and a scream from the man on the ground. With a resounding tinkle, Magus let the recently liberated lip piercing fall from the tip of his wand and tinkle onto the tile living room floor.

The former owner wailed in agony, clutching his torn lip and glaring up with hatred and fear in his eyes.

"You are a fucking coward, Nevarine." Magus told the man, somewhat unnecessarily as the stain on his robes would testify too.

"And a bully." Lawrence added disapprovingly, thinking of the times that the thug had tried intimidating him at family meals that they had been unlucky enough to attend together. He was still waiting to be paid back 3 sickles the brute had 'borrowed' from him after one unpleasant family lunch.

"Generally just a piece of shit." Dawn weakly put in her two cents worth, from behind them still nursing her injuries. It seemed like a fair summary.

"But he is now our piece of shit." Paige decided, piping up as the ingenious idea came into her head.

"What?" Lawrence cried in confusion which transcended into a long silence.

* * *

"I was just going to set him on fire like the others, but it sounds like you have a better idea kid." Magus wearily mused in concession and slumped into a nearby chair, leaving it to his apprentice to handle.

"I just spared your life, Noel. Now it is mine, you owe me." Paige pointed out the binding magical connection.

The low level Death Eater gulped in horror at the realisation.

"I don't want to owe a fucking life debt to you! Just kill me now." He spat back at her, literally sending a mouthful of blood filled spit at her shoes.

Lawrence scoffed in disgust and stepped back out of the way. Magus went the other direction and rose from his chair to plant a boot roughly in the downed man's face.

"Mind your manners." He reprimanded the reprobate, who now wore a boot tread pattern and a flatter nose.

"It doesn't matter what you want, you aren't going to remember this anyway." Paige craftily conspired, she gave a subtle nod to Dawn who had come up beside her.

" _Oblivate."_ Dawn hissed and Nevarine's eyes rolled back.

"What are you doing? We need to get out of here!" Lawrence implored them, coughing as the billowing smoke continued to thicken.

"Hold on. We got to do this right." Paige ordered him distractedly.

Leaning over Dawn's shoulder's she gave her friend instructions for reconstructing the memory.

"You managed to put the scare on those two Reverser's, they won't be talking for a while. We burnt down the house as a warning, but the fire spread quicker than we thought and we got caught in the fire…" She dictated to Dawn, who nodded in acknowledgement and began whispering as she worked.

Meanwhile Lawrence was running around in a breathless panic, snatching up gear and throwing it in a bag. He muttered to himself under his breath as he did so.

Magus had collapsed into a chair again now that the adrenaline was wearing off and the crisis almost over. He closed his eyes and looked for all the world to be dead.

Paige saw that Dawn had things very much in hand and started helping Lawrence frantically gather her few valuable possessions.

"Done." Dawn gasped moments later and let her unwary victim sink back to the floor.

"Good because we need to get out of here right now!" Paige wheezed out. Tongues of fire could be seen licking out from the doorway to the apartment now and the smoke was now so dense they could barely see each other.

"Magus has the right idea, get down low!" Dawn recommended, seeing her friend slump forward onto his stomach.

"Uh I think he has just passed out…" Lawrence corrected her in concern as his form did not move.

"Shit, the smoke must have been too much for him after all his exertion today." Paige coughed, crawling over to his limp form. Sure enough the Irish wizard was completely unresponsive, his breathing shallow and labored.

"What do we do? We can't apparate from inside here can we?" Dawn asked desperately, she held a teatowel over her face to protect herself. All three were coughing heavily now in the thickening acrid smoke.

As was standard practice of wizarding dwellings, they were incapable of apparating directly in or out. Paige wracked her immense brain for an answer; _what would Magus do?  
_

Her mind drifted back to their very first shift together.

 _Of course!_ She thought.

"Bubblehead charm! It'll buy us some breathing space." Paige gasped out, conjuring one even as she spoke. She placed a second one on her mentor and took a deep breath of the fresh air it provided.

"Good thinking!" Dawn cried from her own echoing bubble, Lawrence nodded too looking impressed.

"We still need to get outside." He reminded them.

"Or we can bring outside to us." Paige suddenly realised. Maybe they couldn't disapparate inside of a standard wizard dwelling, but what if it was no longer considered a house?

"Reducto spells straight up on the count of three and be ready to apparate." She ordered the other two. Both she and Dawn held tightly to the still prone Magus. Their sidealong apparition skills might have been sketchy, but they had to risk it this time.

From nearby they heard more coughing as Noel came around, hopefully he had the sense to try and escape. In the thick smoke they could not see him though.

"1"

"2"

"3"

" _Reducto!"_ They called as one, with three wands in the air.

The roof of the little top floor apartment blew outwards in a fantastic explosion of debris. Tiles and pieces of wood rained back down into the now open air building and out onto the nearby street.

But the three desperate individuals who had caused the damage were gone before the first tile landed.


	19. Chapter 19

Coughing and wheezing the four young witches and wizards landed heavily in the park. Apparently it had been Dawn steering because they ended up somewhere familiar to her and the others. It was one of the nearby parks which the trio usually ran in. Luckily they appeared underneath one of the bridges there and were therefore spared the trouble of explaining to other park goers why they were all singed and accompanied by an unconscious, smokey young man.

Paige and Dawn turned Magus over carefully, so he lay on his back once more. The young wizard was as pale as snow and his hair heavy with soot. But at least he was breathing..

"Oh Magus!" Dawn groaned despairingly, taking off her tea towel face cover to wipe away the soot on his face. Even the smudged soot couldn't conceal how pale the young man was.

Whether by the gesture or calling of his name, Magus slowly started to rouse.

"Where's the BBQ?" He mumbled weakly in confusion as his eyes lazily slid open.

"You were setting people on fire again." Dawn cagily reminded him, with a sternly affectionate expression of disapproval on her face. It had become quite a habit for him lately. Paige wondered once more if he was the cause for the so called spate of self-starting fires..

"Least I'm warm again.." Magus muttered and winced, closing his eyes again.

Paige stood up in satisfaction that he couldn't be too poorly off if he could bicker, so instead she went to check on her own boyfriend.

He was standing by himself at the edge of the shelter provided by the bridge and was staring out at the small dirty stream that passed by. His usually blonde hair was grey from ash and made him look like an old man. Lawrence turned as she approached and Paige winced at the large bruise and laceration that had formed on his forehead. With a soft touch of her wand it began to shrink and close until only the blue colouration was left in its place.

He nodded at the neat piece of magic, but kept his mouth firmly shut. He was almost as pale as Magus and she thought if he opened his mouth he might vomit.

Yup.

With a horrid wretch he projectile vomited all over Paige. All she had done was ask him how he was feeling and when he tried to answer…

Less than impressed, Paige vanished the vomit. Luckily her nose was still too filled with the acrid smell of smoke to notice the new odour. Lawrence for his own part looked incredibly embarrassed, but seemed afraid to open his mouth for fear of it happening again.

"Real smooth there, Leonardo!" Magus wheezed in amusement from where he was now feebly sitting up with Dawn's help. Dawn frowned at his unhelpful remark, but looked reluctant to hit him in his delicate state.

Lawrence's expression soured with anger however and he scowled at Magus, swallowing down some bile.

"This is all your fault we are in this mess!" He accused the Reverser once he gulped down the larger chunks.

"Probably. It usually is." Magus shrugged offhandedly in concession, brushing ash out of his hair slowly.

"Stop!" Paige insisted, putting a hand on her boyfriend's chest.

He brushed the hand off and advanced furious on the seated Magus.

"This is no joke we are in serious trouble here!" He growled irritably, towering over the other wizard.

"Nah those guys were amateurs, we've dealt with worse." Magus disregarded the idea again casually and oddly began to remove one of his shoes with some difficulty. His pale face crinkled with intense pain and concentration.

This of course served only to infuriate Lawrence more.

"We could have died!" He ranted in exasperation trying to get the other wizard to see reason.

"Pretty much a daily occurrence in this job." Magus coolly replied through gritted teeth as he peeled off one blood-soaked sock.

Dawn suddenly gasped and Lawrence balked, running to a nearby bush to throw up again.

Paige immediately saw why.

The exposed left foot of Magus McIntyre was completely missing his last two toes, in their place were simply gruesome bleeding stumps.

* * *

"Alright, who the fuck splinched me?" Magus screamed, his voice shrill in alarm and pain.

Dawn was white as a ghost and guiltily shared a look with a horrified Paige.

"Sorry Magus, you know I'm not great at apparating even myself." Dawn apologised in mortification.

"I know. You left your nipples behind that one time. Was a whole week before I gave them back, remember?" Magus recalled in saucy delirium, an event that may or may not have happened based on the look of confusion it created on Dawn's face.

He turned to Paige and read her expression like a book.

"Well don't just stand there on your ten fucking toes. Hurry up and fix me some damn new ones." Magus sarcastically demanded.

Paige apprehensively knelt down in front of his injured foot and raised her wand. She didn't want to tell Magus that she had never regrown a toe before, but he seemed to know.

He had hastily taken off his other shoe and held out his other foot in comparison.

"Helps to have a template." He explained through obvious pain, his eyes swam in and out of focus. Clenching his hairy remaining toes in agony, he curled up the templates in question.

"Look at the same toes on the other foot then concentrate on what it should look like." Magus mumbled in instruction as she raised her wand in front of his little toe.

" _Regentum"_ She murmured and tapped the bloody stump. Paige put all her concentration in to what the other toe looked like and she imagined the new digit in her minds eye.

Slowly a pink lump seemed to emerge from the hole, growing larger until it obscured the wound and was the same length as the one on the opposite foot. All the while it made a horrible crunching noise.

Nearby Lawrence heaved violently again. Dawn looked like she wanted to join him.

Paige smiled, she'd done it! She had regrown a whole freaking toe… Admittedly she had caused the loss of the digit in the first place, but that was beside the point.

"Not bad, Rookie." Magus hissed, with some relief on his face.

"I'll do the other one and show you how it is done." He told her, shakily raising his own wand.

"You need to remember the structures you are regrowing too; magic is unexplainable, but somehow regrows them regardless. It is however a poor imitation of the original, like a rough sketch rather than a copy." Magus explained in a rasp as he touched his own missing toe.

To Paige's disgust, yet intrigue, this toe did not grow like hers had. Instead a stark nub of bone sprouted from the wound, like snow being molded into a roughhewn toe shape. It seemed to whittle down and spiral with groves as the bones sharpened into the intended shapes, complete with the joint. Next the bones seemed to darken slightly, white and pink bands grew from their surface and wriggled down the length back into the base of the foot. Now thick gellotinous red muscle fibres emerged and covered over the bone. More layers of tissue emerged one after the other until finally, a pink scarf of skin came to bind it all together. The tip of the skin lastly hardened and keratinised into a toe nail on top.

Paige looked up at her mentor her mouth wide in amazement; she had never seen or heard of any body part grown back in such a deliberate manner.

"Although disputed by the Healer's Council; I have theorised that a comprehensive understanding of human anatomy and physiology allows you to heal and regrow tissue better." Magus finished with a rare passion in his voice that was odd for a person talking about toes.

"That was gross!" Dawn commented conversationally and took her hands off from over her eyes.

"I also theorise dittany works the same as basic healing; a quick fix but creates more scar tissue, longer recoveries and more problems later on down the track." Magus continued in his mad passionate ramble that seemed borderline delirium fuelled.

Still seated beside her, Magus started dancing his wand up the length of Dawn's leg where she knelt beside him, everywhere he touched caused small cuts and scratches to close themselves up.

"See not a scar on her? I couldn't blemish that perfect skin!" Magus further demonstrated winking with some of his usual playfulness despite his haggard state.

* * *

"You are insane!" Lawrence broke in and loudly accused the man, incredulously shaking his head.

"Jury is still out on that one." Magus corrected him, resting back on his elbows and wriggling his new toes. Indeed the one Paige had regrown seemed slower or stiff in its movements.

"Those wizards you set on fire might be dead!" Lawrence spat gesticulating wildly as he approached again with a newly empty stomach.

"If I was a betting man… Probably." Magus indifferently agreed with a shrug.

"Murderer. You are a murderer!" Lawrence realised the implication and stared wildly from one girl to the next at their seeming lack of fucks they were giving.

"No. I think it is serial killer if it isn't your first?" He gazed around questioningly as if one of the others could correct him on that point.

"How are you not in Azkaban?!" Lawrence gasped like a fish out of water.

"Didn't suit me.." Magus snapped back beginning to get annoyed by the new addition to the group.

"Why are you acting like this?" Paige interrupted, accosted her boyfriend. She stared at him like a stranger, his handsome face twisted into someone unrecognisable. In all her memory she could never remember Lawrence getting cross or upset, it was very out of sorts for him.

"Because this madman has endangered all our lives! He burnt down your flat!" He cried in vexation.

"Smoke inhalation?" Magus offered as an alternate reason.

Suddenly Lawrence had his wand out and pointed at Magus where he still sat slumped on the ground. But with a speed belying his seated position, the Reverser moved too. Dawn and Paige cried out as one and moved forward to intervene, but they were also too slow.

Lawrence had made the mistake of advancing to stand over Magus in his anger and it had put him within striking distance.

Magus swung a hand to clamp on one of Lawrence's ankles and with a deft judo flick of his wrist he toppled the other wizard over. Lawrence cried out in pain and surprise, his curse going wild and up into the underside of the bridge as he fell.

Magus took advantage of the situation to slide up to sit on the now grounded wizard, pinning his wand hand to the ground with his knee. Dropping his head low he placed a hand deep either side of the wizard's neck, gripping the back of his collar and forming an 'x' with his crossed over wrists just above the exposed throat. Bracing out with his elbows, Magus applied pressure through his wrists causing immense pressure on the carotid arteries and effectively strangling Lawrence.

"STOP!" Paige yelled again and through the combined effort of Dawn and herself, they managed to grab Magus's shoulders and make him relinquish the strangle.

"You raise a wand at me again, Son; it will be the last thing you do!" Magus hissed in dire promise, relaxing his grip but remaining in his pinning position. His eyes shone cold with malice and carried the unmistakeable intention to back up the threat.

"He's just scared Magus, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it." Paige said softly looking at her clearly frightened boyfriend. His lip trembled with terror or perhaps anger. He glared up at Paige for her accusation.

"And that's okay. We are all afraid." Dawn added quickly to spare the young man's ego. Gently she took one of Magus's hands and led him off of Paige's boyfriend. Magus needed the assistance and precariously he leaned against Dawn in utter exhaustion. It seemed every time that day he had been about to collapse, he was required to use more energy to get out of trouble. It had clearly taken its toll, both physically and mentally.

Paige went to help Lawrence up too, but she was brushed off roughly and he sprung to his feet himself. Indignantly he straightened his robes and ran a hand irritably through his hair. He gagged and coughed for a few moments, as his recently liberated throat recovered.

"I'm not afraid!" Lawrence purported defensively and managing to look like an upset owl with ruffled feathers. His face was an unattractive purple hue as he still recovered from the rough housing.

"I'm terrified." Paige told him earnestly and gave him a wane smile that he did not return. Her entreating look drew no response from him and her stomach turned, like it was eagerly awaiting its turn to vomit.

"Me too." Dawn agreed weakly, she still clutched her side, which hurt afresh having to break up the recent tussle.

It seemed like Magus's turn to say something, an opportunity he rarely missed, but he was silent for once. Most unusual; typically he would always get in his turn to talk and often steal someone else's too.

Instead he was focussed on palpating Dawn's flank that he clung to for support. She visibly stiffened as one of his hands slunk inside a large hole in the front of her robe. He cheekily raised an eyebrow and continued to wander with his hand inside the shirt of her robe.

* * *

Lawrence snatched up Paige's hand all of a sudden.

"Come on Paige, we are leaving." He decided quickly and drawing on her arm. She resisted and he turned back to her in confusion.

"We can't leave Dawn and Magus." Paige quietly told him in disagreement and refused to budge. The idea of abandoning her two brave friends seemed unfathomable given the recent events and she simply stared at Lawrence as if his idea was presented in a different language.

As if on que, Dawn gave a stifled yelp. Magus had clearly either found the site of her injury or else had boldly grabbed something he shouldn't have. It was 50/50 either way, but the fact that Dawn gasped and crumpled over would indicate the former. With a clinical speed and determination, he straightened her back up and followed his other hand in with his wand. A moment later, Dawn gave a loud sigh of relief as her pain was reduced.

"We aren't safe with them." Lawrence hissed, capturing Paige's attention again.

Always the thinker, she considered this statement for a moment. It rang sour on her ears and she studied the face of her boyfriend. It was smeared with soot and smoke, red in place from the fire and his long golden hair was singed at the ends. He didn't look anything like the Lawrence in her picture or from any of her memories of him.

She had no doubt of his mental acumens; he was at least as intelligent as her, if not smarter on his runes. But at this moment in time, her smart cultured boyfriend was saying some very dumb things.

"Actually I think we are safer." Paige asserted, voicing what was the conclusion in her mind. In her very astute memory she could only recall incidents where her safety had been increased by the presence of either Magus or Dawn.

"Magus has literally saved my life about 5 times." Paige informed her boyfriend. It was not a statement meant to carry the unsaid challenge of 'how many times have you saved me?' But that was perhaps how Lawrence interpreted it; his face hardened and he dropped the hand he was holding.

In the background Magus did little to help as he counted off seven fingers to indicate how many occasions it had actually been. He held them up as if to say 'come on, give a brother some credit!'

"And Dawn has always been there to support me and look after me at the drop of a hat." She added stonily. This time the message was clear; 'you haven't been around to do this'.

Lawrence's face had lost all colour now as she glared at the three others from the fire. His breathing was rapid and panicked, agitation written across every crevasse of his face.

"I'm going, Paige; back to Spain where it is less…" He fumbled looking for a word to end his declaration.

"Crazy!" He eventually chose meeting the bloodshot eyes of the other man, who hung barely conscious from Dawn's still shaking shoulder.

"But I need you.." Paige uttered weakly and holding back a dry sob in her raw throat.

"No you don't." Magus wheezed from behind her.

He had slowly disentangled himself from Dawn, who herself had sunk to her knees with fatigue. Slowly Magus staggered up beside Paige and he supportively placed a heavy hand on her shoulder. It was just as much for his support, as it was for her.

Lawrence eyed him in outrage with livid, red-rimmed eyes.

"If he wants to run back to Spain like a coward, then let him." Magus hoarsely spat, his eyes challenging despite being barely held open.

It was too much for Lawrence; he snapped.

Paige jumped despite her already frayed nerves as the man standing beside her hurtled back, hit by a jet of intense red light. It was the first time in a very long while that anyone had gotten in a cheap shot on Magus McIntyre. The Irish wizard flew back several metres and came to a teeth-shuddering sprawl on the grass, completely unresponsive.

Paige whirled back on Lawrence in shock, but with a loud crack he was gone. Paige was left with one final glance at his wild expression before he disappeared. Behind her, Dawn screamed Magus's name once more in alarm as she rushed to his side.

Lawrence had disapparated, but had gotten off one shot before he went; a hit and run.

And with that final action he had abandoned Paige and her two injured friends.

* * *

 **Dun dun DUN!  
**


	20. Chapter 20

Magus, as expected, awoke with a start and started casting spells before his eyes were fully open. Half naked, yelling and fighting in his sheets, Magus brought chaos to the small bedroom he was now residing.

With a jerk, Paige leaped off the old orange armchair beside his bed, which had sprouted tentacles and promptly tried to throttle her.

"Magus settle down, you're safe!" She cried in reassurance, batting at some errant eager tentacles.

On noticing her presence, he ceased the movements of his arm and sharply turned to look at her. His chest rose and fell rapidly, bare under the sheet.

"Sorry, Kid." He rasped in a newly rough voice, it was not a huge loss, like he had been a great singer or anything. Quite the opposite really, as the recently repaired radio in the office would testify to..

"Jeez that looks like some nasty Japanese hentai shit..." He commented at the disturbing sight of the tentacled chair that still eagerly reached for Paige.

With his apology, he briskly transfigured the chair back to normal and slowly came to sit on the side of his rumpled bed. He was wearing just old blue pyjama pants and a puzzled expression.

"Where are we?" He mumbled in confusion, shooting glances around the unfamiliar room. It was decorated with light yellow wallpaper, some daffodils had until recently resided on a short chest of draws, but now lay strewn across the floor beside a shattered vase. A large window sat behind the bed and the curtains were open allowing bleak winter sunshine to colour the floor.

Before she could explain, the door burst open and a large figure filled the frame; his wand in hand.

"Magus, meet my dad." Paige ominously introduced.

* * *

"I heard a crash!." Mr Calamisi gruffly explained in way of his presence and took in the scene with a trained eye.

"Magus woke up.." Paige began.

"That much I can see." Donatello wryly noted.

"And was startled being somewhere unfamiliar." Paige finished, as she did her wand was moving repairing the damage with ease.

"My bad.." Magus sheepishly shrugged and weakly made to stand. His legs shook like those of a new born foal.

"Magus McIntyre. Thanks for the bed." He hoarsely introduced himself offering a hand to Paige's father. It was an effort even raising his arm and he had barely enough strength to give a respectable handshake.

"Mr McIntyre, I'm Donatello Calamissi. Welcome to my home." Mr Calamissi returned in his deep voice, his tone was unreadable.

"We'll be having lunch downstairs soon, I hope you'll join us." He informed his guest politely before giving Paige a firm nod and taking his leave.

Magus immediately collapsed back to sit on the bed once more, his legs giving out. His face was drenched in sweat from the small effort and he coughed loudly a few times. Paige offered him a glass of water and he gratefully accepted it with shaking hands.

"Don't have anything stronger do you?" He weakly joked as Paige sat down next to him.

In answer to his question, Paige did the unexpected and pulled him into a tight hug. She held on for a long time, the lingering scent of smoke strong on his skin despite the cleanup he had been given. The muscles in his chest and shoulders felt tight like carved stone and it took a moment before he responded to the surprise and carefully, his arms slowly enveloped her back.

He gave her a quizzical look when she eventually released him and Paige flushed at his naked chest. Interspersed among the fine black chest hair and muscles, raw scars of various shades and sizes marred his fair skin. A large closed up slash ran down diagonally from one shoulder, about a foot in length and a darker pink. There was gap in his chest hair on the other side where a puckered scar left the area barren. Healed up nicks, scratches, welts and burns peppered his skin, too many to count. Part of Paige actually wanted to try count them though, to touch them and see what they felt like under her fingers. Her thoughts strayed dangerously to wonder how he reacted to having them touched. Her eyes caught on the pyjama pants and the knowledge that he had nothing on underneath them.

Suddenly aware of her inappropriate errant thoughts, Paige brought her gaze up deliberately. On the way she noted the slight bulge of his stomach, the result of too many beers and not enough kilometres running. Yes Magus was fit in most sense of the word, but as he liked to joke; his abs were protected by a little layer of protective fat.

"What was that all about?" Magus asked in confusion and it took Paige a moment to realise he probably meant the prolonged hug.

"I can't hug you?" She shot back quizzically.

"I guess so. Just never have." Magus shrugged stiffly looking perturbed.

"I was worried about you. You've been asleep for three days." Paige explained slowly. While true, she had also been suddenly overwhelmed by emotion for the silly man who had stood by her, even when her own boyfriend had run away. Or should she say ex-boyfriend? Admittedly she had then gotten somewhat caught up in the heat of the moment.

"Three whole bloody days!?" Magus exclaimed his eyes wide in shock at the revelation.

He must been louder than he thought, because someone else burst their way through the door.

Dawn.

* * *

She stood there, pale faced with red rings around her eyes.

She gave a noise somewhere between a sob and a whimper before erupting towards Magus. Paige wisely cleared aside as her friend pushed between them with a strength belying her stature.

"Jerk!" Dawn accused him jabbing him in the bare chest with a pointed finger.

"Sweets.." Magus started hoarsely trying his pet name for her, but was cut off by a second sharp stab of a finger.

"Don't you dare 'Sweets' me, Magus McIntyre!" She warned him formidably.

Magus held his hands up in double placating palms and shakily found his feet again. Paige also got to her feet and began to slink towards the door, thinking it better to leave them to it.

"Dawny, I'm sorry.." Magus began again.

"Three days, Magus! You are unconscious, not responding to anything.. I thought you had finally gone and gotten killed this time." Dawn informed him, her fury giving way to despair for a moment.

Magus carefully started to approach her, like one would an animal that had gone rogue and clawed up that Malfoy boy. On the dangerous scale; Dawn looked to be at about Hippogriff level.

Before he could reach her though, Dawn whirled still on the warpath and pointed an accusing finger at the fleeing Paige.

"And you were supposed to get me immediately if anything changed, Calamisi!" She hissed accusingly at her friend.

Paige flushed guiltily and stammered a response.

"I was… just…." She never got a chance to finish.

Dawn banished her out of the room with a sharp wand flourish, the door slammed shut behind her. Staring at the blank door in alarm, Paige took a moment to collect herself before descending the stairs of her old family home.

* * *

Downstairs her mother was busy spreading the table for lunch, laying out bread, cheese and bowls of steaming soup.

She looked to the stairs confused to find Paige coming down by herself, no doubt she had heard the raised voices.

"Where are your friend's honey? Your father said the boy is awake." She asked her daughter as the girl came over to help her set the table.

"Magus is awake, I think Dawn and him needed a moment alone." Paige explained without a hint of embarrassment, yet refusing to meet her mother's curious gaze. Upstairs a raised muffled voice could be heard and what sounded very much like a vase being broken for a second time.

Mrs Calamisi gave her daughter an unseen knowing nod of understanding.

"I'm sure they will be down soon." She assured Paige sagely and she lay out the good place settings they used for company.

Paige was less sure of that statement, knowing the two close friends and their seemingly infinite capacity to bicker and fight. There was a loud thump upstairs like a heavy body hitting the floor and Paige winced in sympathy.

Donatello remerged wiping his hands down on a cloth having just come in from the garage, he too appraised his empty table, but said nothing about it. Instead he took a seat at the empty table and accepted a steaming cup of tea from his wife with an appreciative small grin.

Paige slowly took a seat across from him and avoided his laser like interrogating eyes. He had always had a way of knowing when she was hiding something or when there were things amiss in his household. Was he a legimens? Did he have a stock of Veritiserum? Maybe or perhaps it was just a dad thing.

He sat and waited patiently for Paige to talk first, this was how their relationship had always worked. His patience and waiting game were on point.

Before Paige was forced to break the silence, there was a different noise from the top of the stairs. Magus stumped his way slowly down the stairs leaning heavily on the bannister, he had a rather woeful, sheepish expression on his face. Dawn followed him closely, with a hand tenderly on his back to support his laboured progress. The fury she showed earlier seemed to have dwindled to a mild smouldering irritation and she gave Paige a barbed stare for a moment before transforming to a polite smile.

Wordlessly, Magus limped to the table and exhaustedly slumped into one of the chairs at the table. Pale as a poltergeist, but only half as mischievous, he eventually looked up at Mrs Calamisi with a wane crooked grin.

"Weren't really introduced, the whole being unconscious and everything. I'm Magus." He drawled in his Irish lilt, in what was the closest he could manage to manners.

"We've been wanting to have you round for a meal for a long time, Mr McIntyre." Mr's Calamisi told him kindly after the introductions were out of the way.

"Although we did imagine that you would be conscious and covered in a lot less blood when you entered our home." Donatello added with an edge to his tone, his wife sent him a sharp look.

"My bad, I would actually quite like to know how we got here. I don't seem to be missing any important parts of my anatomy so I must assume the girls didn't try apparate me again." Magus enquired in his usual smartass manner.

Dawn exchanged a guilty look with Paige briefly, before remembering that she was supposed to be annoyed with her.

"So we got out of the housefire by no longer making it a house." Paige explained the cleverness of her brainwave with an edge of her usual smugness.

"Smart; breaks the apparition wards on a standard wizarding dwelling. I was wondering about that.." Magus conceded reluctantly.

Donatello also nodded approvingly, he had already heard this part of the story, but could appreciate the solution anew every time. His daughter was clever, of that he had no doubt.

"So that's how we got to the park. I remember waking up there." Magus slowly pieced it all back together.

He took a sip of the water set in front of him and wet his parched throat.

"Well after you passed out again.." Paige took up the narrative and gave him a pointed stare. Dawn shot him a similar look, which clearly said they hadn't told Donatello about Lawrence's undignified exit. Thankfully her less than tactful mentor actually got the message for once and didn't ask or quip about it.

"Dawn came up with the solution, we caught a Taxer."

"Taxi." Mrs Callamisi corrected her daughter gently.

"Yeah that; the muggle car driver. They took us here." Paige finished simply.

"And gave your parents quite the surprise." Donatello gruffly admitted, his gaze still hadn't stopped evaluating the new man at his table. He seemed undecided as to whether to offer Magus a bread roll or to kick him out of his house.

The former won and he insistently passed the bread, still warm from the oven and smelling heavenly.

Magus eagerly helped himself, his stomach rumbling loudly and rudely. The Calamisi's politely ignored this and the fact that he ate out of his hands like an uncivilised caveman.

"From what Paige and Dawn tell me, it sounds as if you could use some more protection from the dark forces." Donatello surmised solemnly.

Magus put his bread roll down and took his elbows off the table after Dawn gave him a pointed look that would have impaled a lesser man, if such a man existed. He stopped slurping the homemade leek and potato soup to give Paige's dad an even stare.

"You are talking about going to Dumbledore aren't you?" He irritably guessed with a heavy sigh and he put his spoon down.

Dawn's usually attractive features set in an uncharacteristic scowl at the name.

Paige piped up at their reactions.

"What's wrong with Dumbledore? He is a brilliant wizard!" She passionately defended their ex-headmaster.

"With a heavy touch of the dementia." Magus snorted derisively.

"He might help run some interference against the Death Eaters for you though." Donatello pointed out in his deep voice, as if it settled the matter.

Paige nodded her head in agreement, she had debated the idea of joining the order with her parents for a couple of months now. To her this seemed like her father finally relenting to the idea of her joining up. It had been a point of contention in the household for several weeks.

Magus knew when he was outnumbered and he turned to get his co-conspirers opinion. While obviously not happy with the idea, Dawn gave him a reluctant, but clear look of concession.

Magus sighed theatrically.

'Fine, we'll go have a chat to the old fruit…"


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N-** Damn... two chapters in quick succession, I'm feeling like hot shit! Thanks for the reviews guys, glad some folk out there are enjoying the journey with me. Should be a bit more action in the next few chapters, I just have some story to set first.

Cheers.

 _ **-Grey.**_

* * *

"Why didn't Dawn want to come?" Paige asked her mentor as the two of them stepped out of the Calamisi house together, without their third companion.

Magus had regained much of his strength that day, but his sunken features seemed to further tighten at the question. It was later that evening and after dinner, before he was strong enough to make the journey to Hogwarts.

"Couple of reasons." He grumbled, reaching into the pocket of his olive green combat style jacket that someone had considerably brought round for him. In typical Magus fashion, he withdrew his silver skull and crossbones flask and took a deep pull, ignoring the standard disapproving look he got for his trouble.

Paige was, without ever admitting it, somewhat glad her mentor was having a drink. Since he had woken up she had noticed how pale and jittery he seemed without any alcohol in his system, at some point in the day she had hit the realisation that he was a true alcoholic and had a real dependency to the substance.

True to form, his eyes seemed to hold more light when he dropped the flask and his mischievous usual crooked grin broke his face for the first time that day. Paige decided that sober Magus could be a little too dreary and serious for her liking. She preferred this livelier, jovial version, regardless of his addiction.

Eventually he answered her, taking his good sweet time about it.

"Well Hogwarts wasn't such a great time for our lovely Dawn unfortunately.. Not everyone had a big old fun, magic time there and got made prefect or had friends."

Magus explained derisively with a definite edge of bitterness to his mocking tone.

"Can ya blame her for not much wanting to relive some bad times?" He posed to his student. This forced Paige once more to consider what secret Dawn must have happened in her past to ostracise her so greatly from her peers and earn the lovely young woman such disdain.

"No. I guess not." She agreed in quiet contemplation.

"Not overly stoked to come back here myself." He confessed, rubbing his hands together briskly to generate some heat as he pulled on a bright orange knitted beanie, complete with bobble and earflaps. It looked ridiculous of course.

"Also Dawn may be mad with me at the moment too." Magus quickly added, before turning on the spot and disappearing.

* * *

"Wait, why is Dawn mad at you?" Paige asked once she had herself apparated and caught up with him on the outskirts of Hogsmeade.

"More than usual I mean." She clarified, considering that Dawn was usually at a baseline of mildly irritated by something Magus was doing at any given time.

Magus did a great imitation of a deaf man and instead wandered on wordlessly as night descended in earnest, blanketing the small village in darkness.

Together they made the journey into Hogsmeade village, the little town was in a sleepy silence and for once her mentor did not stop for a pint at the Hog's Head. Magus did eye the passing pub with a wistful hunger in his eyes though.

They were met at the gates to Hogwarts by a familiar and unwelcome drawl.

"Identify yourself.." The slow, terse voice commanded and the pair had the feeling that a wand was pointed directly at them. It was a voice that had come to be loathed by generations of witches and wizards.

Magus predictably and impatiently spoke for the pair.

"Magus McIntyre; Accidental Reversal Squad, Mediwizard. Open the gate already, you tosser." He identified himself irritably. A beam of light illuminated his face for a moment from the darkness before swinging to dazzle Paige.

"And you?" The same voice demanded.

"Paige Calamisi, same department. We've got an appointment with Dumbledore."

The gates seemed to open under their own accord and the two Reversers were met by the cold sneering face of Severus Snape, the least popular teacher at Hogwarts.

He snorted in greeting as they crossed the threshold.

"I didn't think you were allowed back in the school after last time, McIntyre." Snape sneered at the Reverser as he approached.

"Well if it isn't Professor 'Date-rape' Snape; the forty year old virgin himself. Still haven't been laid I see." Magus shot back snidely.

Snape ignored the jibe from Magus with a scowl and instead addressed Paige.

"This colleague of yours was actually quite talented at potions, when he wanted to be. I suppose the rest of his magic was so poor he had to get something right eventually." Snape told her in a sarcastic drawl. It was a standard Slytherin compliment; one with a sting in the tail.

Snape caught himself when she came closer and he recognised her or processed her name.

"But what am I talking to a Calamisi about potions for? Your pitiful muggle mother produces cheap knockoffs of the real thing and actually sells them. No daughter of hers would know what a good potion looks like." Snape mocked mercilessly.

"My mother isn't a muggle and her potions are twice what yours are!" Paige snarled in confusion and anger, her hand drawn to her wand in insult.

"You didn't even know that your mother is a muggle? How did you ever make prefect with such ignorance?" Snape drawled in genuine delight at her realisation.

A stout tap on his chest stopped his bullying tirade from continuing. It was given by Magus's thick wand and was as close to a warning as Paige had ever seen him give.

"Shut your slimy mouth or you can use it spit teeth. Take us to Dumbledore already you cretin!" Magus demanded his tone heavily with menace, his face having twisted to lose any levity. Paige couldn't remember ever seeing her mentor so irritable before and wondered whether it was being back at Hogwarts or just the presence of the muppet potions teacher. It was also possible that he was still too sober to be civil yet.

Snape looked as if to say something more, but instead pushed away his wand roughly and gestured in front of him in greeting to the grounds.

"As you wish, Medicine Man." He spat the last two words like they were the greatest insult he could find.

* * *

They proceeded in silence to the main doors of the castle, there Snape decided he had enough of their thrilling company.

"I trust you can find your way to the headmaster's office from here McIntyre? You spent enough time in there." He derisively drawled as a parting shot, before turning his oversized bat cloak and storming back towards the dungeons.

"You know that giant cloak is like pussy-repellent?!" Magus yelled after him as they entered the main hall. It was festively decorated for the Christmas season, halls were literally decked with bells and holly. Several large pines lined the walls, covered in tinsel and glittering fairy lights. Overall it made for a very bright almost overwhelming contrast from the bleak cold night outside.

"That guy has always been a complete arsehole right?" Magus checked turning to his student. He sent the decorated hall a scowl that would match Snape's, as if the room itself had offended him.

But Paige was still lost in thought, straining her mind trying to find a memory of her mum performing some magic, any magic. There were plenty of times where it was assumed she had used magic for one thing or the other, but Paige couldn't actually clearly picture her doing any. In her mind there had never been any doubt her mum was like any other overworked magical mother, until now. The logical part of her weighed in and suggested that just because she manufactured potions, did not mean that she had to have magic.

"I think my mum is a muggle and I never realised…" She whispered to him in epiphany. She felt incredibly stupid even saying it aloud.

"Well sometimes we don't see patterns until they are all laid out in front of us, especially regarding loved ones." He replied in what was almost wisdom.

Until he ruined it.

"But seriously? You didn't know? How the fuck were you in Ravenclaw again?"

"Well now that I think about it, she never talked much about Hogwarts." Paige considered critically while they climbed a set of stairs.

"Not surprising, this place is a bit of a backwards fucking dump." Magus muttered sourly as they passed three students in the corridor leading to the office.

"Heyyy!" The tall redheaded teen objected with a voice that had recently cracked.

Beside him the messy haired boy in round glasses, with a grotesque scar also piped up.

"Hogwarts isn't a dump!'

"Bite me Rangatang. Beat it, Specks!" Magus waved in easy dismissal of the insulted students and he continued walking.

The red head looked about to do or say something more, but the third teen, a pretty frizzy haired girl, sensibly dragged them both away.

"I think that was-"Paige began in shock, recognising the main characters of a far more popular book series.

"Who fucking cares, let's get this over with." Magus impatiently cut her off as they reached the statue of the gargoyle.

"Puking Pastel." And the gargoyle hopped aside, letting the stairwell behind it open up.

* * *

Paige had never been in Dumbledore's office before, you usually had to fuck up pretty bad or be the Chosen One for that to happen. For Magus it had clearly not been the latter.

He looked around unimpressed at the unchanged room that he had indeed visited several times. As he had once been quoted on saying, it was full of 'all sorts of eccentric crap'.

On its perch beside the desk, Fawkes the phoenix squawked apprehensively and bored a severe gaze at Magus. Admittedly, Paige noticed her mentor seemed to eye the bird back hungrily.

"Ah Dr McIntyre, Miss Calamisi." Dumbledore looked up from his desk to notice them.

"It's just Mr McIntyre now, as you should well know." Magus frostily responded to the headmaster.

The old wizard's eyes twinkled and he smiled sadly.

"Alas, it is a title you still deserve from what I hear. May I call you Magus, as one would if friends?" He politely replied.

"Friends depends on whether you can help or not." Magus rudely returned, folding his arms and eyeing the bird once more. Paige ground her teeth in frustration with her obtuse mentor, this was not exactly the start they were after.

Albus sighed sadly.

"You have always excelled at being quite rebellious." He regrettably granted his ex-pupil.

"Perhaps I shall simply call you the Medicine Man, as many have come to do." He decided happily.

"Whatever you want, Professor D. It ain't me we are really here to talk about." Magus reminded him.

"Yes, but manners are important and I'm sure you are to play a role in what events are to come, whether you realise it or not." Dumbledore softly said.

"Miss Calamisi." He turned to address the as so far, left out junior Reverser.

"Please, Sir. You may call me Paige." She insisted politely as if there hadn't just been the tense trade-off between her mentor and arguably the most powerful wizard of the age. Dumbledore nodded gratefully and gave her a fatherly smile in return.

"Given the hour, tea seems odd. A brandy perhaps?" The headmaster graciously offered the pair.

With a wave of his wand a tray of drinks appeared. Magus nodded eagerly and Paige also politely accepted a glass. She watched as her mentor took an approving sniff of the amber liquid, followed by a deep sip. Paige figured it was probably quite a good placating move to offer Magus a drink first. More out of good manners, Paige took a short gulp of the brandy, she felt the liquid pleasantly numb her mouth and burn all the way down her throat.

* * *

"First off I must say; some of our staff here were surprised by your choice to start in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, Paige. You had your pick of employers on leaving here with so many NEWTS, but I'm proud to see what a name you have made for yourself already." The Headmaster beamed at Paige.

The old man's gaze darkened somewhat and he seemed to no longer be looking in the room, as the pair told him of their recent encounters with the Death Eaters.

"Unfortunately in the course of your duties you have both run afoul of the gathering dark forces and in turn have drawn their attention." Dumbledore surmised grimly.

"Sadly I fear that to remain unguarded from here would certainly court death, as capable as yourselves and Miss Denison have proven." His eyes met meaningfully with Magus at the mention of Dawn.

"So we join your happy bird club and get protection is that the deal?" Magus chirped up, cutting to the chase. He was onto his second tumbler of brandy by now and gladly eyeing up a third.

Albus regarded him evenly for a moment before speaking over steeped fingers.

"You declined my offer back in July, Magus. There were some within the Order who thought it folly to extend the invitation in the first place."

"Well I did turn you down then didn't I? So perhaps they were right." Magus smirked in concession.

"But your mind has been changed?" The Headmaster prompted him gently.

"Maybe, but my conditions haven't." Magus reminded him with the hint of a smile over his brandy glass.

Dumbledore eyed him carefully, heavily scrutinising with his sharp light blue gaze.

"When it was just Dawn and I, we could manage and look out for each other." Magus continued, before glancing at Paige.

"But things have changed. The Kid here, she needs protection more than we can provide, for her family too."

Dumbledore nodded sagely.

"So the deal is this; Paige wants in to the Order in exchange for guaranteed protection of her family. In the same line, her old man is willingly to do his part too." Paige nodded eagerly and held in her hand a letter from her father which said to the same effect.

"As for Miss Denison and yourself?" Albus enquired without accepting the offer yet.

"You guys don't want her, so by association you don't want me. That's fine with us, but it shouldn't be held against the Kid." Magus firmly insisted. Paige felt a surprising pang of affection for her unconventional and usually inexpressive mentor.

He bowed his head in compromise.

"We are on the same side though I assure you. Maybe we don't sign the dotted line or are let into all your meetings. In good faith though, we've always assisted the Order; we've helped members, covered for them and passed on relevant information when we came across it." Magus reminded his old teacher, who nodded at the truth in these words.

"Efforts that have always been appreciated, it is a useful position you hold." Dumbledore commented in commendation.

Magus continued to candidly address Dumbledore.

"You said it yourself that I don't play well with others. It's true. But know that if the battlehorns blow and you need soldiers; Dawn and I will be there."

"As will I." Paige promised solemnly.

"Consider us allies to the cause. We'll be there working behind the scenes and if you need something in particular you let us know?" Magus proposed grudgingly.

Dumbledore smiled softly at the gesture from the two.

He offered a hand first to Paige and then Magus.

"Paige, we can hide your family and protect them better than you know. I gladly accept your offer of service and welcome your father too." He assured the teen grandiosely.

"Magus, I can't say I agree with your methods wholly." Dumbledore addressed McIntyre with mild disapproval, who threw his hands up in the air in mock surprise at the comment.

"I suppose you prefer forgiving enemies rather than incinerating them." Magus jeered crassly.

"Very much so. Some would see this compassion as a weakness, but I believe compassion to be the greatest strength and one that I see in great quantities in both of you." Dumbledore evenly replied

"I must have left it in my other jacket." Magus mumbled as a joke, but he refused to meet the headmaster's piercing blue eyes. He gulped more brandy instead.

"A sense of humour is important too." Dumbledore granted him, his eyes twinkled at Paige as if he had been there for her lesson on it long ago back at the ministry's office.

"But it was compassion that drove you to study medicine, to be the best Magimedic and to befriend the once lonely Dawn Dennison." The wise man reminded him.

For once Magus had no smart assed quip to throw around instead his eyes roamed to the phoenix on its perch where it eyed him suspiciously.

"Was it not the love of your father that drove you this very office five years ago to try and strangle some tears from poor Fawkes?" Dumbledore added another example softly.

Paige almost choked on her brandy at the mental image that conjured _. So that is why Magus had been forced to leave Hogwarts!_

"Like he couldn't spare a drop or two for a dying man?" Magus grumbled sullen at being reminded.

"Overgrown buzzard!" He cursed under his breath and Paige noticed that her mentor rubbed his heavily scarred hand right hand bitterly. Fawkes squawked reproaching from his perch, as if he was warning the young man off attempting similar again.

"It was this love that you showed which prompted me not to expel you, but instead to give you a chance to leave under your own volition and seek study in the muggle world." Dumbledore gently told him. Magus merely nodded once while he carefully studied his battered black boots.

It didn't happen very often, but Paige realised that this was Magus being taught a lesson for a change.

"The point my dear Medicine Man is that I would implore you to consider your approach in the future. Violence begets violence, whereas a simple act of kindness, mercy or love may be the thing that vanquishes an enemy." Dumbledore insisted with a knowing soft smile.

He gave Paige an approving nod.

"Killing your fellow man is not all that pleasant or easy now is it?" Dumbledore finished in a quiet remark. His piercing blue eyes seemed to darken at the sentiment like it was a lesson he had himself learned long ago.

"Maybe that's part of the problem; it does feel too easy to do, when you see how loosely bound to life we are." Magus disagreed quietly with a morose shake of his head.

He shook off the funk quickly enough.

"Good chat Yoda, we done here?" Magus quipped, trying his best to sound nonchalant once more.

"Does that make you Han Solo than, being our cocky rebel?" Dumbledore returned with amusement once more in his eyes.

"I'm literally so stoked you actually got that reference!" Magus marvelled, turning to Paige to see if she was as impressed as he was. Paige mimicked his expression falsely, having still not watched the assigned movies on her first day. She had been faking it ever since. It was just one more thing that her crazy mentor said that didn't make sense to her.

"Don't be so quick to assume about others, you might be surprised." Dumbledore slyly suggested to him.

Magus nodded once more and shook the old man's hand with a new found respect for him. Paige followed his suit, seeing that their audience was over.

* * *

At the bottom of the stairs they ran into a short, toad-like woman dressed in an overstuffed pink pantsuit. Literally ran into; if Paige didn't know any better she would have sworn her mentor body-slammed the woman on purpose.

Umbridge scowled like a bulldog with a bellyache, before she recognised the perpetrator.

"Mr McIntyre, you had better watch where you are going!" She scolded him like one would a child. Given how childish Magus was on a day to day basis, it probably wasn't unreasonable.

"So sorry, didn't see you down there!" He apologised condescendingly to the indignant High Inquisitor.

"I see that numerous written warnings have done little to improve your impertinence." Umbridge snarled taking in the muggle dress and 3 day stubble of the immature Reverser.

"It would appear that it is yet to curb your sloppy bearing or inappropriate attire either." She coldly added.

To be fair, his green military style jacket was open to reveal a grey t-shirt with a posed buxom bikini model suggestively eating a lollypop. The goofy orange hat he had removed for his audience with Dumbledore had been haphazardly replaced and seemed to offend the woman in front of them just as much as the t-shirt.

Magus turned to his student and cocked his head quizzically.

"Translation?" He requested from her.

"She seems peeved that the Ministry has been unable to retrain you from your rude manner and lazy, vulgar standard of dress." Paige obliged gladly, she bowed her head as she did so to try and avert attention from herself though.

But she did not pass from the Inquisitors judgmental sight.

"What a waste putting you in that disgraceful department, dear. Especially to be paired with such a stunted, reprehensible reprobate like him!" Umbridge tutted in false pity at Paige's predicament.

"Translation please?" Magus asked again impatiently.

"She thinks our department sucks and that you are no good criminal."

"Very much so." Umbridge haughtily agreed with the summary.

"Can't really argue with that, can I?" Magus shrugged indifferently, he had always been pretty straight up about the fact that he was a bit of a jerk.

"What a waste.." Umbridge tutted again looking at Paige with a shamed small grin.

"I'll have you know; I chose the department of Magical Catastrophes and I chose Magus as my mentor." Paige surprised even herself by stubbornly replying. She wasn't quite sure where the sudden pride for both had come from, but it was there now, burning inside of her fiercely.

 _How dare this woman judge them when she had never seen the good work they did?_

Was Magus an unconventional, borderline insane alcoholic? _Yes!_ Was he a good man at heart, who only wanted to help others? _Sort of… Sometimes.. If it suited him.. Most of the time he was a bit of a dick._ But he was a dick who was very good at his job. He was also fiercely loyal and had only ever done right by her.

Umbridge's piggy eyes flashed at the retort.

"Maybe it is not such a surprising pairing after all." She airily noted in a pompous tone, before realising which staircase the pair had just emerged from.

"What were you meeting with Dumbledore about?" She suddenly and fiercely demanded of the pair.

"I'm trying to grow a bigass beard and wanted some sweet tips from the master." Magus provided, trying and failing to look innocent. It was a look that he had never managed, not once in his ill spent life.

Paige barely held back a giggle at the preposterous excuse.

"A likely story!" Umbridge huffed in disbelief.

Magus simply began stroking some imagined facial hair like an ancient Kung Fu master.

Paige properly lost it this time and snorted with laughter at his absurd story.

"No! No wait! We were trying to recruit him as the bass player for our new Ska rock band!" Magus managed to deliver with a dead straight face for about 5 seconds.

The two Reverser's lost their shit at the last suggestion and dissolved into wails of laughter right in the face of the Under-secretary, who looked far from impressed.

"Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.." Magus managed to gasp out in explanation for his antics.

"If I catch you on these grounds again I'll..!" Umbridge thundered.

"Tell Mulis to chuck me on report again? Whatever. You can't fire me because no one else wants to do this job.." Magus waved off the threat unconcerned.

"Magus we need to go.." Paige quickly decided, dragging him away from his most enjoyable taunting. She did not want to hear what punishment the deputy to the Minister of Magic could dish out. Chances are that she would get caught up by association in whatever reprimand that Magus would receive.

Umbridge's incensed gaze followed them as they made their way out of the castle.

As they made their way out of the school gates, Paige turned to Magus.

"What happens now?" She asked him.

"We do what we do best; we get back to work." Magus simply replied.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N-** Oooooooooh I enjoyed writing this chapter! I'm not sure how others start out a story, but for me it often springs from only a few ideas and scenes; this was one of them. A few more storylines start crossing over and you start to see where Paige's adventures start to intersect with the books.

Thanks for all the reviews, guys; I'm glad you are enjoying the story and it always makes it easier to sit down to write when you know someone other than yourself is reading it haha.

Also should be a dramatic secret revealed next chapter so stay tuned! No spoilers here but you are welcome to try guess ;)

Til next chapter.

- _ **Grey.**_

* * *

Dawn and Magus headed back to their respective houses that night, after profusely thanking the Calamisi's for their aid and hospitality.

Magus was true to his word and arrived at work right on 9 o'clock, which was relatively early for him.

His early appearance and his noted three day absence caused somewhat of a stir around the office. Not least of all that Paige had called in sick for the both of them the past three days. Magus did absolutely nothing to extinguish rumours that he was sleeping with his student, by confirming that he had been staying with her at the Calamisi homestead.

Paige flushed brightly at the apparently knowing smirks Bill and Ben wore as they left their office after a brief catch up with her mentor. In turn she gave said mentor a dirty look, which he failed to notice as he slurped away at his usual breakfast of Kahlua cornflakes.

It felt like back to business as usual except for one thing.

Magus must have been right when he said that he had pissed off Dawn, as she didn't show up that morning. This was an unusual turn of events and left Paige feeling somewhat lonely, stuck only with her immature mentor for company. She noticed that as they tied up the loose ends left from being away for 3 days that his mood had seemed to steadily decline. He seemed even more disinterested in the paperwork than usual and instead was rapidly sending the interoffice aeroplane memos with a frustrated determination.

They had sporadic work that day and for the next two days. It followed the now irritatingly similar pattern where it was just the two of them. Paige went to visit Dawn at her cubicle a couple of times but found her either absent or frosty in her reception, to the point where Paige decidedly felt as if her presence was unwelcome. In direct contrast to the upcoming festive season, Magus seemed to become more surly than usual and Paige was certain that he was more heavily intoxicated recently than he had ever shown up to work. The amount of teaching he did with her had tailed off and was more likely to be interested in secretively scribbling more memos or else sleeping in his hammock.

To compound matters, her home situation had deteriorated. She now remembered why she had been so eager to leave home.

Paige was becoming fed up with her mother's endless enquiries about work, her friends and Lawrence. Her mother only meant the best, but the ceaseless interest and curiosity as to how things ended with Lawrence was almost enough to drive her to reveal the miserable truth.

Almost worse than her mother was her father, who was almost paranoid now in the level of security he was demanding of the family. He had even exceeded Magus in the paranoid efforts he would go in the name of safety. He now made demands such as keeping a wand on her person at all times, even in the shower! The extensive wards placed upon the house frustrated Paige when all she wanted to do was get inside the house and out of the freezing cold. Instead she ended up, on more than one occasion, stuck out on the snow-covered front step shivering and trying to reverse the hiding ward for the house.

* * *

All up, it made it hard to focus on the work that needed doing and this in turn accumulated into a late night at the office for the pair of unlucky reversers after they got back from an evening job. It was nearly midnight by the time they got back to the office and they still hadn't cleaned up or decontaminated their equipment. Wearily the pair trudged back into the office, soot from the fire settling in their still damp hair.

Paige ground her teeth in irritation, sure that she was going to need to have a difficult conversation with a mentor soon. But where to start? The drinking? The surliness? The laziness? Or what she suspected was the cause of it all; Dawn?

"Do they usually projectile vomit so much with Dragonpox?" Paige instead asked Magus in exhaustion, as she withdrew her bag from under the desk.

"Pretty much. I did tell you to step back.." He reminded her for the third time and to her infinite annoyance. He had pretty much only told her that after he, himself had stepped clear of the splash zone and forcibly pushed her in front of him like a shield.

Magus unslung his battered old vest and the silence stretched for a long while between the fatigued officers, before he suddenly looked up at Paige quizzically.

"What?" He enquired, looking terribly confused.

"I didn't say anything..." Paige murmured slowly, wondering if the sleep was giving her mentor auditory hallucinations. It had happened before; one time in the outskirts of Kent, he had sworn he could hear bagpipes.

Magus persisted despite her scepticism.

"You didn't go 'ARRRGHH!'?" He suspiciously asked her, miming with his hands like he was trying to frighten her.

"Noooo.." Paige drew out the word, doubtful of her colleagues sanity given his Kahlua breakfast and the six pints he had smashed back on their lunch break.

"Huh." Magus dismissed with a shrug, seemingly satisfied. The silence stretched again as they packed their respective bags for home.

A sudden piercing scream made the pair jump and look up from the dark cubicle.

"Probably wasn't you making that noise." Her mentor dumbly concluded for them.

* * *

Simultaneously, they had drawn their wands and a second yell, louder than the first called from downstairs.

All fatigue flew from the pair as a surge of adrenaline pumped into their bodies. Magus snatched up his vest again and shoved it on hastily, his alert eyes scanning the darkness back and forth.

This time the cry was unmistakeably for help and Paige met Magus's gaze for a moment. His grim nod seemed to say it all; 'we have to check it out!'

"What if it is a trap?" She hissed at him, as she silently followed him into the darkness of the rarely used ministry stairwell.

Wizards, as one would expect are lazy just like muggles; even more so some would say because magic affords more convenience. Needless to say the stairs were rarely used except for a make-out spot during the Christmas party. But of the many great things the elevator was; quiet it was not.

Paige was trying to walk stealthily like he had taught her; heel to toe footsteps, rolling her foot slowly into each step. Somehow she still seemed to make more noise with each footfall than her mentor, who was half drunk, but who somehow moved with a feline grace and silence.

"It usually is a trap!" He unhelpfully confirmed in a whisper, a loopy grin on his face and withdrew a small torch from a pouch.

He held it out to a side a good foot from his body and clicked it on. As he had explained to Paige in one of their many tactical lessons; opponents tended to aim for the light. If you used your wand for light you potentially exposed your weapons location to them. By offsetting the light it also meant that a spell or attack would be aimed off to a side of where you actually were, potentially saving you from a deadly hit. All these things flashed through her mind as she followed after her mentor, the fear rising in her throat, but held in check by the confidence she had in the man. She took her lead from him and drew her own torch, holding it in an identical fashion.

They descended one flight of stairs and another, and another. Finally they found the commotion coming from a painting a few flights down.

"Cool it, Dorian Gray!" Magus ordered sharply to the vocal painting who was getting ready to loudly shout for help again.

"What's all the noise about, tell me quickly and quietly or end up looking like a fucking Picasso!" He threatened jabbing his wand in warning at the wizened figure in the portrait.

With much grumbling, including a few varieties of 'I used to be the headmaster you know', 'so rude' and 'will have to do..' the man addressed them.

"Terribly sorry to bother you both, but I'm sure I heard some great commotion downstairs and figured someone should go check up on it." He declared in a matter of a fact way.

"Wonderbra here seemed to think this might be a trap. Got any proof it isn't?" Magus gestured at Paige, who was not stoked with her new nickname.

"No. Sorry. Just that it sounded like screams, you know? Thought someone might be hurt." The painting insisted, looking nervous now at the reluctance to believe him.

Magus shared a long suffering look with Paige.

"Alright, We'll check it out but if this is a rouse…" Magus let the Picasso threat hang. Paige thought it was probably the first time surrealist art had been used as a threat before, but the ex-headmaster in the painting at least seemed frightened by it.

Moving slower and more cautiously into the very bowels of the ministry now, Magus kept his spirits up by practicing saying 'it's a trap!' in as many different celebrity voices as he could.

"Itsh a trap!" He finally finished in a quiet Sean Connery garble; aptly, his timing saw them reach a narrow wavering blood trail at the start of a T-intersection of tunnel that ran across their path.

"Holy fucksticks!" Magus exclaimed under his breath at the sight that gruesomely beheld them in the grim torchlight corridor. There was a thick wavering trail of blood if they looked left and the same if they looked right. The pair swallowed thickly at the horrid scent of freshly spilt blood.

Hypocritically he indicated for silence as he knelt to inspect the slaloming, keeni meeni track of bloodstained stone. He dragged a finger across the surface and brought it up to the light of his torch to inspect, before trailing his light over the path.

"The trail is fresh, some sort of whopping big snake or perhaps a really dedicated eel." He declared under his breath, as was often the case; Paige was unsure if he was serious or not.

"The eel went that way!" He decided after inspecting the tracks further and pointing down the left fork of the path.

"So we go.."

"Right!" Paige finished for him ominously.

"Towards whatever or whoever is bleeding…" She added grimly.

"The blood is warm and not yet clotted; the bleeding is fresh. We might not be too late." Magus informed her brusquely and he ushered her rightwards while he followed more slowly facing rearwards.

The trail was short and it didn't take them long to reach the source.

* * *

"Nooooooope! We are waaaaay too late; that is a shit-tonne of blood!" Magus quickly changed his mind at the sight of the sickly crimson puddle that was pooled on the floor and sprayed up the walls just outside the door to the department of mysteries.

It was smeared and sloshed as if a struggle had been happening in the gore. Indeed what looked very much like a corpse sat slumped unmoving against one horror stained wall.

Paige took a step towards the body, but Magus held her back warningly with a hand.

A distant scraping noise behind them had caught his keen attention and he leapt the blood puddle deftly, with agility belying his fatigue. Wordlessly, he moved to cover the rear of the corridor they had just come from with his wand, before gesturing to Paige that she could now advance. Bravely and completely unperturbed by the puddle of blood, Paige dived forward to assess the bloodstained figure. She was surprised to see that the chest was still rising slowly and unevenly on the broken twisted man.

"He's alive." Paige called in a carrying whisper to her mentor who was crouched at the edge of the blood puddle inspecting some ,more marks there, with one eye still on the empty corridor corner.

"But he is pretty banged up!" Paige added noting the deep puncture wounds to his chest and limbs, her wand moved frantically in coordination with her hands to apply tourniquets and bandages to stem the bleeding. Her torch was now clutched in her teeth and shone a shaky halo of light over the macabre scene.

The corridor behind them was now silent and Magus apprehensively chanced a look back from his covering position.

"Stop the bleeding and package him up. We need to get the fuck out of here!" He croaked, his voice raspy from the rancid tang of freshly split blood. The smell seemed to catch at the back of the throat and to activate some primal part of the brain that yells 'RUN!'

Paige did as she was told, stemming the flow of blood as best she could. It slowed but did not stop, a steady dark ooze tried to persistently make its way through the tight pressed gauze. She levitated the barely alive victim onto the stretcher and tried not to slip in the blood as she beat a hasty retreat towards the stairwell. Magus cautiously peered around the corner before bolting out to lead the charge back for the stairs.

Magus forged the way, his wand still raised defensively and his light catching a bare glimpse of the figure in the portrait from earlier, sprinting out of frame once more.

"What do you know? It wasn't a trap after all.." He murmured more to himself than anyone else.

Together they sprinted up the stairs, fear lending them speed.

They were up two flights before Magus figured they weren't being followed and allowed himself the lapse in security to examine the patient himself.

"Son of a bitch!" He cursed soon after doing so and wiping blood away from the pale face before him. They didn't stop moving though and instead treated him as they ran, leant over the hovering stretcher. Even with the blood and the poor light; the unmistakable, pale face of Arthur Weasley stared back at them blankly.

"I know this guy!" He exclaimed to Paige and he pushed her aside so he could feel for a pulse. There were none to be found at the wrists, but he finally found one at the carotid and frowned.

"Weak. Too weak." He muttered to himself, reaching into his vest. He pulled a dark red potion from a pocket and pressed it into Paige's free hand.

"Get that down his throat." He sharply ordered, stripping away the ragged remains of Mr Weasley's robes with his wand as they jogged alongside the floating stretcher.

Paige did as she was told, recognising the solution as a blood replenishing draught by its signature colour and the maroon vapour it gave off. Arthur coughed weakly and spluttered, but seemed to get most of the potion down the right hole.

Meanwhile, Magus had a fresh set of bandages unfurled on the workspace of the patient's sunken chest and he smeared what looked suspiciously like peanut butter on the gauze before applying it fresh directly to the wounds. The wounds smoked and steamed under the dressings that he drew tight with his wand. They now no longer oozed through as fiercely as they had before though.

"Dragon's blood and Peanut butter, usually works as a wicked clotting agent." Magus explained at her curious look and he frowned, tossing her another potion to administer. Grossly, he licked the remaining peanut butter off of his wand, which he had used to apply it.

"Good job on the tourniquets." He quietly commended her as she gave him another forced potion. The complement lost a lot of the credit though, when it was said through a mouthful of peanut butter.

"Is he going to live?" Paige had to ask, dread in her stomach.

"Maybe, whatever bit him has some gnarly poison; never seen anything like it! We need to get him to St Mungo's fast.." Magus grimly declared and they sped up.

* * *

They burst through the doors to their office, the only one in the floor with lights still on and charged straight into the fire.

"Preparation room!" Paige gasped hurling a double handful of floo powder on the flames. For the first time ever she was grateful for all the early morning runs that she had been shanghaied into by her mentor. She needed every bit of aerobic fitness she could get.

With a crackle the three of them tumbled out onto the hard concrete floor and barrelled up the ramps to the magical hospital.

Somehow the hospital had known they were coming and a full magical trauma team waited at the top of the ramp for them.

"What have you got?" A portly wizard asked briskly from behind a light green operating theatre style mask.

Paige thought he looked vaguely familiar, but couldn't place him.

"It's Arthur Weasley!" Someone exclaimed recognising the pale ginger wizard.

"Yeah we found him in the ministry, attacked by something with big teeth. Serpent I reckon based on the tracks left in the blood. Must have been a fucking massive one too! I've never seen poison like this before though, some sort of acidic anticoagulant maybe?" Magus handed over the patient, floating him across onto a plush hospital bed.

"Multiple penetrating wounds to the chest and limbs, struggling to control them with pressure and dragons blood." He carried on.

"Right lung is done for!" One of the healer's muttered watching the absent chest rise on that side.

"He's crashing!" Another warned the gathered group.

Magus stopped his handover to stab violently with his wand into the side of Mr Weasley's chest. Grotesquely, he plunged his wand inside the man a good 2 or 3 inches before jerking it around. One of the young attending healers recoiled in shock and disgust, but it got worse! With a horrid sluice, Magus withdrew his wand and a torrent of bloody pink bubbles followed it. Completely indifferent to the grossness of it all Magus wiped his wand on one of the attendants before inadvertently brushing a bloody hand across his own sweating brow. The crimson stain, slicked his unruly short fringe back once more into untidy spikes.

Paige felt physically ill from the brutal display until she noticed the right side of the patient's chest rising and falling again in time with the left.

"Just needed to release some of the pressure, you see?" He told the horrified gathered group with a cocky wink. Two of the attending healers ducked away from the bed to violently vomit, Paige knew how they felt!

"Thank you Mr McIntyre, Ms Calamisi." The portly head healer dismissed them with a cold, steely tone.

Magus waved vaguely in acknowledgment before heading over to a nearby basin to wash his hands. A scouring charm left them clean, but he still took his time rubbing on several different magical soaps before thoroughly rubbing rinsing and drying his hands. He then started preening himself in the mirror, wiping the blood from his brow and hair.

Paige looked down for the first time and noticed that her whole forearms were stained with the blood of their patient. She copied her mentor's actions and languished in the warm water and the pungent soap as it caressed her skin surgically clean.

"Will he survive?" Paige nervously asked again of her mentor as they watched the magical trauma team descend on the pale, ginger man.

Magus stared at the working team critically and looked as though he wanted to make comment on their work, but he held his tongue.

"Hopefully, he's a decent guy; has a nice wife and about a million kids. Poor bastard!" He mumbled absently. It was unclear whether the last sentiment was due to the victim's injuries or his home life.

"What was he doing all the way down there at this time of night?" Paige wondered aloud, but stopped when Magus made a shushing motion.

"Bird group stuff I expect. So mind you say nothing right now." He cautioned her.

"Since you are a member of the same happy budgie club, you should probably get a message to the big D about this." Magus suggested as they made their way back down the ramp.

"Can you..?" She started to ask him, but he cut her off.

"Nope. His stupid swan doesn't like me. You'll have to do it." Magus told her with a carefree shrug. With that he stepped into the apparation circle and disappeared with a spin and a crack; presumably to go home and drink or sleep.

The former seemed most likely.


End file.
